Dr Gunasegaran Karupiah

Dr Gunasegaran Karupiah (Guna) is a microbiologist with extensive expertise in viral immunology and infectious diseases. He holds a BSc (Hons) in microbiology and an MSc in rapid diagnosis and epidemiology of dengue and dengue haemorrhagic fever from the University of Malaya. He later earned a Ph.D. in viral immunology from the Australian National University (ANU). Dr Karupiah completed postdoctoral training at the Laboratory of Viral Diseases and the Laboratory of Immunopathology at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), NIH, USA. Upon returning to Australia, he led research groups at ANU, the University of Sydney, and the University of Tasmania (UTAS). 

His research focuses on viral pathogenesis, host immune responses to viral infections, and the development of recombinant orthopoxvirus-based vaccine vectors. Using the mousepox model, his group has contributed important insights into orthopoxvirus pathogenesis and the role of virus-encoded immune evasion molecules. More recently, his team has demonstrated that targeting both the virus and the associated inflammation can significantly mitigate viral pneumonia caused by orthopoxvirus and influenza A virus infections. Dr Karupiah has been recognized with several prestigious fellowships, including the Fogarty Fellowship (NIH, USA), the Medical Foundation Fellowship (University of Sydney), the NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship (Australia), and the International Research Scholar award from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (USA). He is currently Associate Professor of Biomedicine at the Tasmanian School of Medicine, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.