Rotary Melbourne Lunch 4 March 2026

Guest Speaker Professor Christopher McDevitt, Researcher Doherty Institute & Melbourne University

Topic Sepsis - When Infection Turns Deadly

Details 12.30 for 12.50 - 2.00pm at No35 Sofitel Melbourne & by ZOOM

Professor Christopher McDevitt is an internationally recognised microbiologist with a PhD from the University of Queensland and postdoctoral training at the University of Oxford. His research focuses on membrane transporters and infectious diseases, particularly Streptococcus pneumoniae.

He is currently Head of Research in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne and co-leads the Bacterial and Parasitic Infections Theme at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity.

His career includes establishing a research group at the University of Adelaide, where he was appointed Deputy Director. In 2022, he received the Victorian Medical Research Acceleration Fund grant for his work on overcoming antibiotic resistance in sepsis, a condition responsible for over 8,000 deaths out of 55,000 cases annually in Australia. Professor McDevitt’s research focuses on restoring the effectiveness of frontline antibiotics and offers critical insights into tackling drug-resistant infections. Researchers in the Doherty Institute, led by Professor McDevitt are committed to dealing with infectious bacterial diseases in the 21st century using a two-pronged approach to engineer novel antibacterial drugs, as well as to develop cheaper and more effective vaccines.

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