Meet The Team Finding Solutions to Antimicrobial Resistance 

Get to know CSIRO’s Digital Solutions for Antimicrobial Resistance (DS4AMR) team and their projects.  

The DS4AMR team is a group of dedicated and passionate multidisciplinary members developing solutions against antimicrobial resistance (AMR) aka superbugs – a rapidly growing global health problem. The team is tirelessly working to explore the prevalence and spread of antimicrobial resistant pathogens and the drivers behind them to better understand how to manage AMR and inform policy. 

Their work includes ongoing efforts to expand upon HOTspots, an AMR surveillance and response program. This program provides region-specific data to inform treatment choices, empower local clinicians, and contribute to Australian AMR guidelines, particularly from regions in Northern Australia where there were gaps in surveillance. 

Meet the Researchers:

Associate Professor Dr Teresa Wozniak

Team Leader, Public Health Specialist & Epidemiologist  

Associate Professor Teresa Wozniak leads the DS4AMR team, acting as the critical bridge between ideas and execution, translating the team’s vision into impactful action. With an extensive background in population health and epidemiology, combined with experience working across diverse sectors, Teresa has driven innovative initiatives like establishing the HOTspots program. 

While investigating the burden of AMR in Australia, Teresa identified a critical gap in data from Northern Australia. This insight spurred her to initiate the HOTspots program. The HOTspots program is used to educate clinicians and the public, provide valuable data for research, and support policymakers in developing effective national AMR strategies. Guided by her leadership, the team continues to expand the program, ensuring the data collected benefits end-users and drives meaningful change. 

Currently, Teresa’s research focuses on understanding how AMR is transmitted across the One Health ecosystem, which examines the interconnectedness of human, animal, and environmental health. With a now thorough understanding of AMR within human health, she aims to explore its transmission further across these domains to uncover broader implications and better address this geographically diverse health challenge. 

Dr Majella Murphy

Project Management & Strategic Planning 

Dr Majella Murphy is an experienced health professional with extensive expertise in psychology and program management, including several years of working internationally. Majella is the team’s powerhouse behind the scenes, overseeing grant proposals, drafting ethics and governance documents, managing finances, coordinating communications and supporting team projects. 

Majella’s journey with AMR began at the Menzies School of Health Research, where she and Teresa collaborated on improving Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health in Northern Australia. During that time Teresa, who was working on the pilot for the HOTspots program, revealed the alarming AMR rates in Northern Australia. Majella recognised the severity of the issue and brought her expertise and passion from improving health to HOTspots. 

Majella is committed to AMR awareness, emphasising the importance of health services, professionals, and the community in understanding the gravity of this issue. She enjoys collaborating with her team in achieving these goals and contributing to an issue she is deeply passionate about. 

Dr Aminath Shausan

Mathematical Modeller and Statistician  

Dr Aminath Shausan is a Postdoctoral Fellow with an extensive background in all things mathematics. Her data science and statistical skills are vital for analysing AMR data and predicting future trends, which are essential for effective disease management. 

Currently, Aminath is working on two projects within AMR. The first involves managing the HOTspots data, encompassing tasks such as data collection, aggregation, and uploading. In addition to overseeing data management, she develops advanced statistical models for the HOTspots program, leveraging AI and machine learning to enhance these models. 

Aminath is driven by her passion for making a meaningful impact. She thrives on collaborating with diverse teams from various backgrounds, finding inspiration in the exchange of ideas and expertise. Aminath is particularly motivated by the potential of her projects to create lasting value and looks forward to seeing how her contributions will prove useful in the future.  

Dr Yen Pham

Systems Thinking & System Dynamics Modeller 

Dr Yen Pham is a Postdoctoral Fellow on the AMR team, specialising in identifying and analysing the factors driving AMR. She uses system approaches, including systems thinking and dynamic modelling, to represent interactions and feedback loops among interconnected elements within a system. This framework allows Yen to investigate AMR by examining the interplay between human, animal and environmental systems, providing insights to policy decisions and promoting stakeholder engagement.  

In discussions with Yen, she highlighted various drivers of AMR such as overcrowding, housing standards, remoteness and the need for culturally safe health services between communities and clinicians, among others. Yen is developing a comprehensive systems model to illustrate how these interrelated factors contribute to the AMR burden. 

Understanding these interconnections is critical for managing AMR effectively and maximising the impact of mitigation strategies. This approach emphasises the importance of adopting a One Health perspective and that tackling AMR is a shared responsibility. Yen stressed that addressing this challenge is not solely the responsibility of health professionals; rather, it requires collective actions across all One Health sectors.   

Dr Lorraine Bell

Sociologist, Policy Analysis & Digital Storyteller 

Dr Lorraine Bell brings another unique and valuable perspective to the DS4AMR team through her expertise in sociology and extensive health research with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Her work focuses on contextualising the social factors driving AMR, a critical aspect of the One Health approach. 

Lorraine integrates Actor-Network Theory to explore the roles of human and non-human actors in AMR systems, fostering cross-sectoral collaboration. Lorraine applies this framework in her Following Antibiotics project, tracing the antibiotic supply chain in human and animal health to identify factors associated with accessing antibiotics across urban and regional areas. This study is informed by interviews with veterinarians, GPs, pharmacists, manufacturers and policymakers. 

Lorraine also emphasises the importance of qualitative data, particularly in AMR research which is often quite number-heavy. Drawing on her background in film studies, she is leading the Faces of AMR project, where she is compiling digital stories to accentuate the importance of AMR through a more emotive lens. This project aims to enhance public understanding, influence policy and guidelines and reshape our relationship with antimicrobials. 

To learn more about the members of the DS4AMR team see the links below: 

Assoc. Prof. Teresa Wozniak, Dr Aminath Shausan, Dr Yen Pham, Dr Lorraine Bell

Dr Aminath Shausan, Dr Lorraine Bell, Dr Teresa Wozniak, Dr Yen Pham at AEHRC’s research colloquium

The DS4AMR team hard at work!