Governance

The AITHM Executive provides leadership and strategic direction for the Institute, guiding its research and partnerships to advance tropical health outcomes.

Director

Distinguished Professor Alex Loukas

Distinguished Professor Alex Loukas commenced as Director of the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM) on 1 December 2025. He previously served as Deputy Director of AITHM and has been a long-standing leader in tropical health and medical research at James Cook University (JCU).

Professor Loukas is an internationally recognised researcher in immunoparasitology, with a career spanning discovery science, clinical translation and biotechnology development. His work focuses on parasitic helminths and the use of worm-derived molecules as novel therapeutics, vaccines and diagnostic tools for inflammatory, autoimmune and infectious diseases.

Educated at the University of Queensland, Professor Loukas holds a BSc (Hons) and PhD in immunoparasitology. He undertook postdoctoral research at the University of Edinburgh and held an assistant professorship at George Washington University in the United States before returning to Australia in 2004. In 2010, Professor Loukas relocated his group from the Queensland Institute of Medical Research to JCU.

Professor Loukas’ work has attracted sustained competitive funding and global industry partnerships, and has resulted in more than 350 peer-reviewed publications and multiple patents in helminth-based vaccines, diagnostics and immunotherapeutics. In addition to his role at AITHM, Professor Loukas is the co-founder of Macrobiome Therapeutics, a biotechnology company developing helminth-derived proteins as anti-inflammatory therapies.

Contact our Director
directoraithm@jcu.edu.au
JCU Cairns, Nguma-bada campus, Smithfield

Deputy Director

Professor Andreas Kupz

Professor Andreas Kupz is the Deputy Director of AITHM, where he leads the Tuberculosis Vaccinology group focusing on microbiology, immunology and vaccine development for intracellular pathogens, particularly tuberculosis.

He holds a Diplom in biology (equivalent to an MSc) from Humboldt University in Berlin, and a PhD in microbiology and immunology from the University of Melbourne. He undertook postdoctoral research at the Max-Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Germany before joining AITHM in 2016.

Professor Kupz’s research has attracted continuous competitive funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Gates Foundation, and has resulted in numerous publications in high-profile journals. His research achievements have been recognised through prestigious awards including the Queensland Young Tall Poppy Science Award and the Australasian Society for Immunology Young Investigator Award. Professor Kupz also serves as co-chair of the Live Attenuated Vaccines Research Community at the Gates Foundation’s Collaboration for Tuberculosis Vaccine Discovery.

Contact our Deputy Director
andreas.kupz@jcu.edu.au
JCU Cairns, Nguma-bada campus, Smithfield