Congratulations to Dr Erica Plummer on her Jack Brockhoff ECR win

Congratulations to Dr Erica Plummer, of the Melbourne Sexual Health Centre, who has been awarded a competitive and prestigious early career research grant from the Jack Brockhoff Foundation.

Her project title is "Identifying novel infectious causes of urethritis to improve clinical management and antimicrobial stewardship". The grant amount for Dr Plummer's project is $144,013 across two years.

She said, "Nongonococcal urethritis (NGU) is the the most common presentation to sexual health services globally, but more than 50% of cases are idiopathic (i.e. the cause is not identified). This affects clinical management and can result in inappropriate use of antibiotics. 

"This project will use a metagenomics approach to identify novel infectious causes of NGU. In doing so, this project aims to provide the data needed to improve the diagnosis and management of NGU, and reduce inappropriate use of antibiotics."

We wish Dr Plummer well and will be posting updates on how the research goes. See her recent publication.