An invitation for an upcoming important event – Friday 7^th of September, Burnet Institute, Melbourne. 

• Professor Julie Bruneau, a clinical researcher and Professor in the Department of Family Medicine at the University of Montreal.  As a clinician, she is recognized as a leader in the development of addiction medicine in Canada.  For the past twenty years, she has conducted epidemiological research among active injecting drug users. Her research accomplishments have significantly contributed to a better understanding of the dynamics of HIV and HCV transmission among IDUs. Her current research interests include exploring access to health care by drug users, in particular the evaluation of the impact of treatments for recent HCV infection among drug users on drug consumption and quality of life.
• Dr Natasha Martin, a posdoctoral researcher based in the Department of Social Medicine, University of Bristol and the Department of Global Health and Development, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Natasha is currently working with Professor Matthew Hickman and Dr. Peter Vickerman on mathematical models of hepatitis C spread amongst injecting drug users.
• Dr Alex Thompson, a hepatologist and head of hepatology research at St Vincent’s Hospital, Melbourne. He is also a Neil-Hamilton Fairley NHMRC Research Fellow at the University of Melbourne, and consultant to the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory (VIDRL). Alex has investigated genetic predictors of treatment outcome in chronic hepatitis C.
• Professor Lisa Maher from the Kirby Institute, whose work focuses on ethnographic, epidemiological and clinical research on drug use and related harms and studies of interventions designed to prevent infectious diseases in vulnerable populations, including people who inject drugs (PWID) and female sex workers.
• Professor Margaret Hellard, Head of the Centre for Population Health at the Burnet Institute, where her work centres around infectious diseases, preventing their transmission and identifying the impact of these infections in vulnerable populations. A researcher and clinician, her principal research interests are in the epidemiology of blood-borne viruses (HIV, hepatitis B and hepatitis C), sexually transmitted infections and improving the management of individuals who already have the infection.