Molecular and Genetic Medicine

Robert Booy

Biography

 Professor Robert Booy is Head of the Clinical Research team at the National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) where he joined in March, 2005. He is a medical graduate of the University of Queensland (1984) and trained in Paediatrics at the Royal Children's Hospital, Brisbane.

He has held a range of positions in the UK including Professor of Child Health with the University of London; Lecturer in Paediatric Infectious Diseases at St Mary¿s Hospital, London; Research Fellow with the University of Oxford; and was the recipient of a Wellcome training fellowship in epidemiology focusing on genetic factors important in meningococcal disease.

Research Interest

 Professor Booys research interests extend from understanding the genetic basis of susceptibility to, and severity of, infectious diseases especially influenza and invasive disease caused by encapsulated organisms, the clinical, public-health, social and economic burden of these diseases (acutely and over the long-term) and means by which to prevent or control serious infections through vaccines, drugs and non-pharmaceutical measures. Over the past 10 years, Professor Booy has been increasingly recognised as an expert in the influenza field, supervising many studies addressing the burden and prevention of influenza disease in children and adults in the UK, Australia and among Muslim pilgrims to Saudi Arabia. In addition he has led intervention studies with new vaccines, new vaccine delivery methods and alternate methods for preventing disease and transmission such as antivirals and personal protective equipment.