Blog icon

Mrs Jenn Barr

Experimental Scientist

https://people.csiro.au/B/J/jennifer-barr

Contact

Please enter a valid first name

Please enter a valid last name

Please enter a valid email address

Please enter your message to send to the contact

Contact details:

Biography

Mrs Jennifer Barr currently works in the Dangerous Pathogens (DP) Team at the CSIRO Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness (ACDP) in Geelong, Victoria. She completed her Honours year at the facility in 2001, looking at improving diagnostic tools for Infectious Bursal Disease Virus. She then obtained a Laboratory Technician position in the Diagnosis, Surveillance and Response (DSR) team where she gained a broad range of skills and training in virology, cell culture, serological assays, working under a quality system and working with PC3 and PC4 agents over 2.5 years.
In 2003 she moved to Dr Linfa Wang's research team (the "Bat Pack") and started working on zoonotic viruses of bat origin and developing improved/novel serological assays. As part of this team, she contributed to the discovery that bats were the reservoirs of SARS-like coronaviruses, development of a horse vaccine for Hendra virus and the discovery of a number of novel zoonotic viruses of bat origin.
In recent years, she has been working in the area of pre-clinical vaccine testing in animal models for Ebola virus and Nipah virus, whilst working under the GLP framework. In 2020, the DP Team was tasked with performing the pre-clinical trials for two COVID-19 vaccine candidates under GLP conditions.
She now has over 20 years experience working at PC3 and PC4 in fully-encapsulating suits. Jennifer has an interest in highly pathogenic viruses, zoonotic viruses of bat origin, serological assays and working in high containment.

Current Roles

  • Experimental Scientist in the Dangerous Pathogens Team
    Vaccines for high containment pathogens

Academic Qualifications

  • 2001

    BSc (Hons)
    Deakin Uni

Professional Experiences

  • 2001-2003

    Research Technician in the AAHL Diagnostic group
    CSIRO

  • 2003-2015

    Research Technician in the Bat Pack
    CSIRO

  • 2015-2024

    Experimental Scientist in the Dangerous Pathogens Team
    CSIRO

Achievements and Awards

  • 2020-2020

    CSIRO Chairman's Medal for the ACDP COVID-19 Team
    CSIRO

  • 2020-2020

    H&B Domain + Digital Award for the COVID Publication Team
    CSIRO

  • 2014-2014

    Eureka Award for Infectious Diseases
    Australian Museum

  • 2013-2013

    CSIRO Chairman's Medal for the Hendra Virus Team
    CSIRO

  • 2008-2008

    Chief Executives Study Award
    CSIRO

  • 2007-2007

    CSIRO award for Partnership Excellence
    CSIRO

Other highlights

  • 2003-2007

    Being part of an international team that discovered bats are the natural hosts of SARS-like coronaviruses

  • 2005-2014

    Being part of the Hendra virus research team that developed a HeV vaccine for horses, the first commercial vaccine for a BSL4 agent

  • 2020-2020

    Being part of the team that performed the pre-clinical trials for the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine

Community and Corporate Citizenship

  • 2016-2021

    H&B Staff Consultative Committee

  • 2019-2021

    Functional Lead for "Virology" for the ACDP Part-Life Refit Project

  • 2019-2021

    Chair of the ACDP Culture Committee

Publications

We have publications by Mrs Jenn Barr