Ameneh Khatami

Career Summary CI Khatami, MD, FRACP (Paed), MBChB, BHB, is a Senior Lecturer for University of Sydney and paediatric infectious diseases consultant based at the Children’s Hospital at Westmead (CHW). CI Khatami’s research career spans 3 continents with a wide network of international collaborators. This started with clinical leadership of vaccine trials carried out with the Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford, under the supervision of Sir Andrew Pollard. Subsequent experience includes time at New York University, investigating Group B Streptococcus colonisation in women. Since returning to Sydney in 2019 CI Khatami has developed extensive collaborations with respiratory medicine specialists throughout Australia, with a focus on antimicrobial therapies in children with cystic fibrosis (CF). CI Khatami is the Phage Therapy Content Expert for the Sydney Children’s Hospitals Network (SCHN) Advanced Therapeutics Steering Committee and was the first clinician in Australia to treat a paediatric patient with intravenous phage therapy (October 2019) for a highly resistant Pseudomonas aeruginosa bone infection with support from CI Iredell. The publication of this case was featured on the cover of EMBO Mol Med in 2021 (https://www.embopress.org/doi/full/10.15252/emmm.202113936), with CI Khatami subsequently interviewed for a podcast on the publication https://www.embo.org/podcasts/the-enemy-of-my-enemy/. CI Khatami has also overseen the treatment of additional paediatric patients using phages against Mycobacterium abscessus (including the first use of a genetically modified phage in Australia). Current Phage Therapy Research and Funding CI Khatami has been awarded an NHMRC Investigator Grant at Emerging Leadership 1 level for a program of research to develop phage therapy as a novel solution for difficult to treat infection in children. Other recent awards include a Conquer CF, Innovation Grant from Cystic Fibrosis Australia, a Research Establishment Fellowship from the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and the inaugural Research Award from the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases all linked to a research project to develop effective phage cocktails to eradicate early infection with P. aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus from children with CF. CI Khatami has also been awarded a PhD scholarship by the NSW OHMR to conduct research on ohage therapy for rapidly growing mycobacteria. Based on experience to date of treating patients, CI Khatami has also led the development of a standardised phage therapy clinical trial protocol, endorsed nationally by adult and paediatric infectious diseases specialists (STAMP https://www.anzctr.org.au/Trial/Registration/TrialReview.aspx?id=382817&isReview=true).