EM/ProfJohn Ellis

I am interested in many areas of veterinary and medical parasitology with a special focus on applied, practical aspects such as development and validation of new diagnostic tests and vaccines for parasites. Specifically my focus has been on parasitic protozoa including the cyst-forming coccidia, haemoflagellates and anaerobic protozoa. This includes neglected tropical diseases. The technologies we use include Omics technologies, DNA sequencing, bioinformatics, molecular phylogenetics, tissue culture, molecular cloning, gene expression, molecular diagnostics and bibliometrics.

One area of interest is the development of vaccines to Neospora caninum. For some years this has included the development and validation of a live vaccine approach in laboratory mice and cattle, but more recently focus has been on surface antigens of N. caninum and the mechanisms of animal responses to infection by N. caninum using RNA-Seq technology/mining of genome sequence data. Many of these studies laid down the foundation that vaccination of cattle against Neospora-associated abortion is feasible and represents a sensible business proposition to a farmer. Such studies have included the use of animal models for vaccine development as well as those on the prevalence and cost of disease to a farmer.

In medical parasitology, my research is focussed on enteric parasites that cause endemic disease, as well as neglected tropical diseases. In collaboration with St. Vincent's Hospital (Sydney) and ICPMR, Westmead Hospital we have been documenting the burden of parasitic diseases in Sydney, Australia. This includes the importance of gastrointestinal parasites as a cause of diarrhoea. Introduction of real time PCR into the diagnostic microbiology laboratory has improved enormously the detection of parasites in clinical specimens. In addition, we are developing a new generation of diagnostic tests for the microbiology laboratory. My laboratory is also active in research on NTD's, including malaria, leishmaniasis and amebiasis.

I am keen to foster external research collaborations in the general area of parasitology and to supervise research students in the workplace.