ALYSON AULIFF

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Fulbright Queensland Scholar

“Malaria is responsible for many deaths annually in tropical regions of the world and is a major cause of military casualties in Australian Defence Force (ADF) personnel who are deployed to these regions. Although Australia is malaria-free it is still a public health concern that should be taken seriously, especially in Queensland. Imported cases of malaria into Australia occur regularly and occasionally local transmission of malaria occurs because the mosquito that transmits malaria exists in North Queensland.”

Major Alyson Auliff, a scientific officer in the Drug Resistance and Diagnostics Department at the Australian Army Malaria Institute and a PhD scholar at the University of Queensland, has been awarded the 2009 Fulbright Queensland Scholarship to conduct part of her PhD research at the University of South Florida (USF) and at the Walter Reed Armed Institute of Research. Her project will focus on developing a novel system to investigate the mechanism by which malaria parasites develop resistance to drugs and to use this system to evaluate new drugs to combat these resistant parasites.

The Fulbright Queensland Scholarship was established in 2007 through the support of the Queensland Government and all the Queensland based universities. It provides an opportunity for a Queensland resident to undertake study or research in the U.S. on topics or issues important or beneficial to Queensland.

Alyson says that her work will address the need to develop a system to better understand how Plasmodium vivax develops resistance to drugs. Vivax malaria is endemic to many countries in Asia and Pacific regions and causes a large burden to their health systems and economic development. In recent years it is also the species that has been causing more health problems in ADF. Vivax malaria has been a neglected disease partially due to difficulties in growing this parasite in laboratories.

Professor John Adams and his team at the USF have developed an advanced and efficient method that Alyson will use to develop her system to study vivax malaria. Alyson will use her Fulbright to build upon previous work she has done with Professor Adams and bring the technique to Australia.

“We believe that this will open up a novel way of studying drug resistance in the malaria parasite and help to identify new antimalarials that are not affected by the already developed resistance,” Alyson said.

Alyson is a graduate from the University of Queensland, with BSc with first class Honours in parasitology. She is also Secretary for the Australian Army Malaria Institute Biosafety Committee and a liaison officer for Australian Army Malaria Institute with the Officer of the Gene Technology Regulator. Her research has received support from the ARC/NHMRC Research Network for Parasitology.