Australasian Virology Society Symposium: Spotlight on Virology in the Pacific

Australasian Virology Society (AVS) would like to invite its members and virologists based in the Pacific Islands to attend the inaugural symposium, Spotlight on Virology in the Pacific, on Wednesday 11am-1.30pm AEST 5th November 2025.

This symposium is being jointly held with institutes spanning the Pacific and speakers include some of the region’s leading virologists based at Fiji National University, Institut Pasteur New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research, Institut Louis-Malardé, Doherty Institute, and Oceania University of Medicine.

This Symposium will be a great opportunity for virologists across the region to learn and discuss about the different virology research happening across borders, building contact points for further collaborative research and creating opportunities for postgraduate/postdoctoral research in the Pacific region.

Detailed program will be released shortly and include presentations from research groups including:

Atlesh Sudhakar (Fiji National University): Senior lecturer at the College of Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences focusing on utilising deep sequencing-based genotyping to characterise the HIV epidemic in Fiji. 

•  Talk title: Molecular Epidemiology of HIV epidemic in Fiji 

Taina Naivalu (Fiji National University): Medical Laboratory scientist and lecturer at Fiji National University, working on characterising viral diversity of Influenza A virus in Fiji.

• Talk title: Molecular epidemiology of Influenza A (H1N1pdm & H3N2) in Fiji (2013 - 2020) 

Dr Catherine Inizan (Institut Pasteur New Caledonia): Group leader in the Research and Expertise Unit, assessing humoral immunity to SARS-CoV-2 following vaccination and infection in New Caledonia.

•  Talk title: Pacific Islanders’ immune response to viruses 

Dr Marinjho Jonduo (Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research): Senior Scientific Officer at the Infection and Immunity Unit, investigating the impact of arboviruses on human health in Papua New Guinea.

• Talk title: An Update on Dengue and other arboviruses in Papua New Guinea in the last 15 years 

Dr Van-Mai Cao-Lormeau (Institut Louis Malardé): Director of the Laboratory for Emerging Viral Diseases at the Institut Louis-Malardé (ILM) in Tahiti, French Polynesia. Her work focuses on arboviruses (dengue, chikungunya, Zika) and emerging viruses (SARS-CoV-2) in French Polynesia.

• Talk title: Mosquito-Borne Virus Circulation in Island Settings: Insights from French Polynesia 

Prof Patrick Reading (Doherty Institute): Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza at the Doherty Institute, Australia, focused on improving diagnostic laboratory capacity in the Asia Pacific region. 

• Talk title: Molecular diagnostics in the Pacific before and after COVID-19 

Prof Satupaitea Viali (Oceania University of Medicine): Vice Chancellor, and Professor of Medicine at Oceania University of Medicine in Samoa, leads infectious disease surveillance and outbreak responses across the Pacific region. 

• Talk title: Combating mosquito borne viruses and hepatitis B in Samoa and the Pacific Region 

This event is free for AVS members and virologists based in the Pacific Islands. To become an AVS member join here.