Professor Phil Giffard
Head of Laboratory Science
Qualifications:
PhD, University of Aberdeen (Scotland), 1987
Bachelor of Science (Honours), University of Queensland, 1982.
Approved level of HDR supervision at Charles Darwin University:
Principal Supervisor for PhD
Location:
Darwin - Royal Darwin Hospital campus
Biography:
Phil Giffard conducts research in the field of microbial genetics and genomics, that is relevant to infectious disease.
The focus is upon questions relevant to the population of Northern Territory. Recent projects gave given rise to fundamental findings related to prominent human pathogens. One example is the division of Staphylococcus aureus (Golden Staph) into three species, that are now termed the ‘Staphylococcus aureus complex'.
One of the newly defined species, known as Staphylococcus argenteus (Silver Staph), was first identified in the Northern Territory, but is now known to be globally distributed. Another example is the first complete analysis of Chlamydia trachomatis isolates associated with ocular infection in Australia. This showed that Australian ocular strains are unrelated to ocular strains elsewhere in the world, apart from at a small number of genes that genes, that on the basis of this work, are now thought to confer anatomical tropism.
Phil Giffard has also pioneered the development of a conceptual framework and experimental approach to informing difficult questions related to sexually transmitted infections and child protection in the Northern Territory.
Phil’s expertise is in the development of genetic analysis technologies, and bioinformatics, and more generally in the formulation and application of innovative approaches to address questions of immediate relevance to frontline clinicians in northern Australia.
