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Biography

Dr Michelle Baker is a Principal Research Scientist the Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness. She has a PhD from the University of Queensland and postdoctoral training at the University of New Mexico in the US. Dr Baker’s current research is in the area of antiviral immunity, in particular, the innate immune response of reservoir hosts including bats which are hosts to a variety of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases that affect humans. Her research team has made significant progress in characterizing the immune system of the model bat species, the Australian black flying fox and the responses of bat cells to infection with highly pathogenic viruses including the paramyxovirus, Hendra virus and the filovirus, Ebola virus. More recently her team has developed human 3D cell culture models for studying emerging infectious diseases such as SARS-CoV-2 and testing antivirals.