Protecting against threats and enabling rapid disease response: we face a big challenge

The COVID-19 pandemic has focussed our attention on the challenge of emerging infectious diseases for human health globally, and the need to develop strategies to respond rapidly and effectively.

At the same time, several important animal diseases, such as African swine fever, Lumpy skin disease and foot-and-mouth disease are increasing their geographical range, including into the Asia-Pacific region. In Australia we have also been dealing with an outbreak of Japanese encephalitis of unprecedented size, with impacts both animals and humans.

The Immune Resilience Future Science Platform is a CSIRO research and development program which aims to address these challenges.

Using new and emerging technologies, we will develop novel systems to stimulate, modulate and harness immune responses leading to the development of new strategies to enhance the immune resilience in both humans and animals.

Now, more than ever, we need to capitalise on new and emerging technologies to provide a deeper understanding of the innate and adaptive immune systems, our strongest defences against disease.

Our research will span three interconnected focus areas: vaccines, resilience technologies, and theranostics.