Dr Amanda Aloia

I completed my Honours degree in Nanotechnology (Biochemistry stream) at Flinders University while also working as a laboratory technician in the Department of Ophthalmology. My Honours and PhD research on the histamine and serotonin receptors was carried out in the laboratory of Prof. Edward J McMurchie at CSIRO in Adelaide and Parkville, in conjunction with Dr Ian Menz (Flinders). I also worked as research assistant in Prof. McMurchie's laboratory before beginning my PhD.

Following my PhD, I worked with Dr Reinhard Grisshammer at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) on the neurotensin-1 receptor, before changing my research focus to virology: a field I was especially interested in. With Dr Alan Rein at the National Cancer Institute (NIH), I developed assays for the detection of replication-competent retroviruses in gene-therapy products and contributed to the rapid investigations into a novel proposed human pathogen, Xenotropic Murine Leukemia Virus (XMRV).

I returned to Adelaide in 2012 to work on Hepatitis C Virus (HCV) with Assoc. Prof. Michael Beard, where I developed a novel HCV cell culture model and assessed the efficacy of direct-acting antivirals in collaboration with researchers from Merck Sharpe and Dohme. Returning to Flinders University in 2015, I worked with Dr Jill Carr on the inflammatory responses associated with Dengue Virus (DENV) infection.

I now manage the research facility, Cell Screen SA, within the Flinders Centre for Innovation in Cancer.