Our People

Professor Jason Roberts is a NHMRC Practitioner Fellow at The University of Queensland, Consultant Clinical Pharmacist at the Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital. He is a clinician-scientist with a strong interest in research and his principal research theme is optimization of antibiotic dosing in the critically ill. Professor Roberts has published over 300 papers and book chapters on this topic, has been awarded over $23 million in grants and supervises more than 17 higher research degree students.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Fekade Sime

Laboratory Manager, Post-Doctoral Fellow

Dr. Fekade Sime is a UQ Research-Teaching Fellow and Lab Manager of the Centre for Translational Anti-infective Pharmacodynamics (CTAP). In January 2016, he was granted UQ Fellowship for a research project on “A translational approach to optimisation of antimicrobial therapy for critically ill patients that prevents the emergence of 'superbugs'”.

Dr. Sime’s research expertise and interest include pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of antibiotics, in vitro infection models, pharmacometrics, ex vivo and clinical evaluation of antibiotic dosing during extracorporeal therapies.

Dr. Sime currently supervises five PhD students and two honours students.

 

 

 

 

Dr. Mo Cotta

Post-Doctoral Fellow

Having completed his PhD in March 2016 in antimicrobial stewardship, Dr. Cotta has recently commenced a post-doctorate funded through a competitive fellowship granted to him by The University of Queensland (2017-19). His work will seek to optimise dosing of commonly used β-lactam antibiotics in critically ill patients to maximise therapeutic efficacy and improve patient outcomes. Dr. Cotta is currently Deputy Chair of the Executive Committee of the Critical Care Community of Specialty Practice (COSP) for the Society of Hospital Pharmacists of Australia (SHPA) and currently supervises 3 PhD students and 3 MPhil students.

 

 

Our Students

PhD

Aaron Heffernan

Aaron is a MD/PhD student from Griffith University who joined the Centre for Translational Anti-infective pharmacodynamics laboratory at The University of Queensland in early 2017. He has previously completed a Bachelors degree in Pharmacy with first class Honours at The University of Queensland as well as a Graduate Certificate in Pharmacy Practice at Monash University.

Following the completion of his Bachelor of Pharmacy in 2012, Aaron worked as a pharmacist at the Queen Elizabeth II Jubilee Hospital in Brisbane, starting his interest in the effect that antibiotic dosing has on the emergence of resistant organisms. His research involves the optimisation of intravenous and nebulised doses of amikacin and fosfomycin in the treatment of multi-drug resistant Gram-negative ventilator-associated pneumonia.

 

 

 

Kamrul Islam

Kamrul Islam graduated with Doctor of Veterinary Medicine (DVM) at Chittagong Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, Bangladesh. He then completed MS in microbiology with research thesis funded by Alexander Von Humboldt Foundation, Germany. In 2016, he awarded with One Health Epidemiology fellowship including Master of Veterinary Medicine (MVM) – Biosecurity with applied epidemiology field research by Massey University, New Zealand in collaboration with Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), Bangladesh funded by European Union’s One Health Asia program. He worked as Biosafety and Biosecurity Consultant in Strengthening Public Health Actions for Emerging Infectious Events in Bangladesh project, funded by United State Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (US-CDC) at IEDCR. Kamrul Islam also worked as an adjunct lecturer at the Dept. of Medicine & Public Health, Sher-E-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Currently he is undertaking his PhD within the CTAP laboratory under the supervision of Professor Jason Roberts and Dr. Fekade Sime. His research project includes optimizing antibiotic dosing in the treatment of multi-drug resistant gram-negative infections.

 

Saiyuri Naicker

Saiyuri Naicker is PhD student within the CTAP PC2 laboratory. She completed a Master’s in Molecular Biology degree by coursework in the School of Chemistry and Molecular Biology at The University of Queensland. Her Master’s research project was within the BTCCRC, under the supervision of Professor Jeff Lipman and Dr. Steven Wallis. The project was looking at a pharmacokinetic analysis of the stability of antibiotics in peritoneal dialysis fluid, in order to assess a method for “at home” treatment of peritonitis with antibiotics already in dialysis fluid solution. Thanks to Baxter pharmaceuticals and the Renal department at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, led by Dr. Dwaraka Ranganathan, the work was published in the Peritoneal Dialysis International (PDI) medical journal.

 

 

 

 

 

Honours

Jawana Alawie

A 4th-year Pharmacy student at The University of Queensland joining in as part of the Majors program. With a previous undergraduate degree from University of Toronto in Human Biology, I was involved in various fields of research whether it was working with humans and measuring their heart rate or hummingbirds and testing their metabolism. Now, I am looking forward to taking my research experience to the microscopic level where I can apply and enrich my pharmaceutical knowledge. I am an open minded adventure-seeker who is willing to learn and discover new experiences. Ultimately, my mission in life is to raise awareness and promote education about infectious diseases, diabetes, and cardiovascular diseases.

 

 

 

Yong Kiat Joash

 

Joash is a 4^th year student in The School of Pharmacy at The University of Queensland. Through the independent research program offered by the university, he was able to be a part of a research team. Having developed an interest in antibiotics and mechanisms of antibiotic resistance over the course of his studies, he looks to further his knowledge in this field through this research project. His project focuses on the impact of duration of antibiotic regimen on surgical prophylaxis outcomes.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Past Students

Lee Fang Yi

Fang Yi is a graduate of The UQ School of Pharmacy. Being part of a research project team is challenging and enriching. Seeing how the whole team pulls together to achieve great outcomes also reinforced her desire to engage in research and development. Her project theme is optimisation of antibiotic therapy for antibiotic resistance by using the hollow fibre infection model. The team can optimise the dosing schedule or figure out some possible drugs combination therapies through PK/PD studies to combat antibiotic resistance.

 

 

 

 

 

Khor Kar Yee

Khor is a pharmacy student from The University of Queensland. Despite the emergence of antibiotic resistance, most of the conventional antibiotic regimens are not suitable for those cases with antibiotic resistance. By choosing Major in Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics in her fourth year, she has the opportunity to join the research team involved in developing the optimum dosing regimen for resistant disease. The team will use the hollow fibre infection model to assess the conventional dosing regimen and describe a new dosing regimen that can be used in the cases with antibiotic resistance.

 

 

 

 

 

Chandra Datta Sumi

Dr Chandra has completed her PhD in 2020, and her thesis title was “Optimisation of alternative antibiotic dosing regimens for maximal antibacterial activity and suppression of emergence of resistance”. She was the HDR student representative of School of Pharmacy-QAEHS Higher Degree by Research Committee and School of Pharmacy-QAEHS Research Strategy Committee in 2018-2019. She also volunteered as the organising committee chair for the 1st Annual Pharmacy-QAEHS Student Research Symposium, 2019.

Previously, Dr Chandra completed her Bachelor of Pharmacy (Hons) from Stamford University Bangladesh in December 2012 from Bangladesh. During her bachelor degree, she undertook research projects related to the antinociceptive activity of Cyperus rotundus in mice model. She then completed a Masters of Science in Systems Biotechnology at Chung-Ang University, South Korea in 2015. During this time, she was involved in four research projects in the areas of microbiology as well as molecular biology related to a novel peptide isolated from Bacillus subtilis SC-8 as well as bacteria present in soybean paste. 

She has published seven articles from 2014-2020. In 2020, she has received one of the UQ School of Pharmacy - HDR Student Best Publication Awards for her published article titled “What Antibiotic Exposures Are Required to Suppress the Emergence of Resistance for Gram-Negative Bacteria? A Systematic Review” (Clinical Pharmacokinetic, 2019).