Professor Suzanne Garland is an internationally-recognised clinical microbiologist and sexual health physician, with particular expertise in infectious diseases relating to reproductive health and infants. After completing her Bachelor of Medicine at the University of Melbourne in 1971, she worked overseas for a year as a Research Fellow at Harvard University in Boston. She started as Director of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the Royal Women's Hospital in 1984. Recognised for her research on infectious diseases, particularly in women's and newborn health, Professor Garland is a regular advisor to the World Health Organisation on sexual and reproductive health infections, cervical cancer and human papillomavirus (HPV). Professor Garland and her team were leaders in the role of patient self-collected genital sampling in the detection by molecular techniques of reproductive tract infections, eg Chlamydia trachomatis, Neisseria gonorrhoeae, Trichomonas vaginalis, herpes simplex virus and human papillomaviruses (HPV). She has been involved with HPV role in cancers, precursor lesions (CIN3), phase 3 clinical trials for HPV prophylactic vaccines and more recently, vaccine effectiveness studies. Her laboratory is the Western Pacific Regional reference laboratory of the HPV Labnet, established by the World Health Organization (WHO). Professor Garland was integral to the establishment 10 years ago of the Asian-Oceania Research Organisation on Genital Infection and Neoplasia (AOGIN), which brings together clinicians and scientists in the region whose work is related to genital infections and neoplasia. She was the inaugural and past president of the organisation and remains an ongoing board advisor.

Microbiology,Infection and Immunity