About
Associate Professor Bridget Barber is head of the Clinical Malaria Group at QIMR Berghofer, an Infectious Diseases Physician at Royal Brisbane and Women’s Hospital, and an NHMRC EL2 Fellow.
Associate Professor Barber completed her PhD in 2014 at Menzies School of Health Research with Professor Nicholas Anstey. For her PhD, she established a clinical research site in Sabah, Malaysia and led a large prospective study of the epidemiology, clinical and pathophysiological features of knowlesi, falciparum and vivax malaria. Following her PhD she was awarded an NHMRC Early Career Fellowship to continue her malaria research in Malaysia.
The outputs from her studies in Malaysia have made a major contribution to the current understanding of knowlesi malaria. This has included the first descriptions of the use of intravenous artesunate for the treatment of knowlesi malaria; the first systematic evaluations of microscopy and rapid diagnostic tests for the diagnosis of P. knowlesi; the first descriptions of knowlesi malaria in children and in pregnancy; and first detailed reports of pathogenesis of knowlesi malaria.
Associate Professor Barber also led state-wide surveillance studies demonstrating the increase in knowlesi malaria in Sabah as the human malaria species were eliminated. She was involved in randomised controlled trials in knowlesi and vivax malaria, and led a randomised controlled trial of paracetamol for the attenuation of acute kidney injury in knowlesi malaria.
Associate Professor Barber joined QIMR Berghofer in 2018, and now leads the Clinical Malaria group in conducting malaria volunteer infection studies.
Area of Interest
Associate Professor Barber heads the Clinical Malaria Group, which focuses on using the induced blood stage malaria (IBSM) model to evaluate antimalarials in healthy human volunteers and to improve understanding of parasite biology and of host response to disease.