Providing clean water and sanitation

Two billion people lack access to sanitation and/or clean water, leading to chronic gut infections, compromised nutrition, and impaired development. Through a ‘one health’ approach, Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute is assessing and informing interventions to reduce these exposures. Professor Dena Lyras, an ARC Laureate Fellow, has dedicated her career to stopping anaerobic bacteria responsible for diarrhoea. Her team have revealed new insights into how clostridia persist in the environment as spores, invade the gut, and subvert the host response. In turn, she has used these insights to develop novel antimicrobials and immunotherapies.