Peter Doherty Institute

Clearance of Treponema pallidum from oral and anal sites after treatment of secondary syphilis: results from a multi-centre, prospective, cross-sectional study

Background Syphilis is increasing worldwide, and secondary syphilis may represent its most infectious stage. Scarce data exist on Treponema pallidum clearance after treatment. We aimed to determine the frequency and load of T. pallidum mucosal shedding, and time to clearance foll...

Skuas as sentinels of high pathogenicity avian influenza H5N1 on the Antarctic Peninsula in the 2024/2025 austral summer

Despite Antarctica's geographic isolation, the first incursion of high pathogenicity avian influenza (HPAI) H5N1 was detected in the 2023/2024 austral summer. Surveillance for HPAI H5N1 in Antarctica remains patchy due to logistical, financial and infrastructure challenges, with...

Chemovaccination with a late-liver-stage antimalarial induces durable immunity against malaria

Plasmodium falciparum sporozoite vaccines, in which parasites are attenuated at the liver stage, provide high efficacy but require complex manufacture and intravenous administration of high sporozoite doses. We found that a single low-dose P. berghei sporozoite exposure (intraven...

Metabolic reprogramming enables transient survival and envelope remodelling in Staphylococcus aureus under dalbavancin treatment

Clinical failure of antibiotic therapy can occur in the absence of measurable resistance, yet the biological basis of this discordance remains poorly understood. Here, we identify a transient survival phenotype that limits dalbavancin efficacy and may contribute to treatment fail...