Anthony Cunningham Australian Society for Microbiology Annual Scientific Meeting 2019

Anthony Cunningham

Anthony Cunningham AO Executive Director, Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research MD, M.B.B.S., B.Med. Sci. (Hons), FRACP, FRCPA, FASM Professor Tony Cunningham AO is Executive Director, Westmead Millennium Institute for Medical Research and Director of the Institute’s Centre for Virus Research, Professor of Research Medicine and Sub-Dean (Research) Sydney Medical School, Westmead , the University of Sydney. Since 2003 he has been Director of the Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis Virology Research (ACH2), funded directly by the Australian Government. He trained in infectious diseases, clinical virology and virology research at the University of Melbourne and as a postdoctoral fellow in infectious diseases at Stanford University. His major research interests are in HIV and Herpesviruses (mainly Herpes simplex virus) biology and immunology, especially in relation to the development of vaccines and microbicides. He has published more than 280 primary refereed scientific articles and >60 invited reviews or chapters in various journals or books on these topics and has been cited more than 10,000 times. He has also played a leading international role in elucidating HIV interactions with macrophages, as reservoirs, and with dendritic cells as an initial target cell following transmission. His group has also made numerous key contributions to HSV immunology which has led to the development and trialling of a partially successful HSV vaccine candidate by GlaxoSmithKline. He and his colleagues also pioneered the study of anterograde transport of herpes simplex virus in neuronal axons in vitro in 1994, and have made major contributions in understanding the mechanisms since. He has participated in numerous international roundtables and often consults for global pharma on antivirals and vaccines In 2010, Tony was made an Officer in the Order of Australia (AO) for “service to medicine, particularly in the field of viral research and through the development and leadership of medical and biomedical research”.