#WeAreSydneyID - Viruses

I’m Dr Megan Steain, working here at the Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute.

I work on viruses: tiny microbes that cause havoc to human health.

Viruses need to infect and take over host cells to survive and reproduce, and so they've learned to become masters at manipulating our cells during an infection.

By studying how they do this, we can design new strategies to treat and prevent them.

We use modified, safer versions of viruses as tools to study the immune response to infection and vaccination against pathogens like SARS-CoV-2, the cause of COVID 19.

By studying viruses, we can also learn their tricks and harness them for our own benefit.

My team are also working on engineering viruses that can specifically target
and kill cancer cells while simultaneously activating our immune response against the cancer to hopefully achieve better clearance of the tumour.

Ultimately, we hope to outsmart viruses for better human health.