Tim Newsome

I studied science at the University of Melbourne and majored in Genetics, and then made the transition over to Europe and obtained my PhD at the University of Zurich while carrying out a large part of my studies in Vienna at the Institute for Molecular Biology. It was here that I became interested in the cytoskeleton, a major cellular organelle with diverse functions in development and disease. I followed this interest to London at Cancer Research UK, where my post-docotoral research concerned interactions between viruses and their host; here again, the cytoskeleton plays an important role. I now have a research group at the University of Sydney examining host-pathogen interactions, whilst lecturing in senior virology. Our favourite pathogen is vaccinia virus owing to the ease by which we can manipulate this virus experimentally. Vaccinia virus has a prominent role historically, it is the vaccine that was used to eradicate smallpox, arguably one of the greatest achievements of modern medicine.