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Dr Freya Russell was recently awarded a PhD with QUT’s Regenerative Medicine and Centre for Immunology and Infection Control. Her PhD project designed and investigated a biodegradable, delayed vaccine delivery device in animals, particularly livestock and wildlife. The goal is to replace the normal, 2 shot, vaccination method with this device to remove the need for a vaccine booster dose, enabling easier vaccination in hard to access animals. Prior to this she graduated from UQ with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) with a major in Animal and Veterinary Bioscience where she validated a method to measure an echidnas stress hormone levels non-invasively and earned First Class Honours.
Freya is currently working under Professor Ken Beagley to optimise the vaccination of koalas against Chlamydia pecorum. By using the Chlamydia pecorum vaccine developed in Professor Beagley’s group in the biodegradable capsule optimised throughout her PhD and further research as a Post-doctoral Research Fellow, the aim is to enable easier vaccination of wild koalas to reduce the incidence of chlamydial infections in wild koala populations.