Our team

The Team

TropCOVID brings together immunologists, clinician-scientists, public-health researchers, and healthcare-education leaders from James Cook University and partner institutions. Our team combines local Far North Queensland leadership with senior scientific mentorship to deliver a safe, participant-centred study of how COVID-19 immunity changes over time.

Dr Daniel Browne — Principal Investigator

Daniel is a Lecturer in Biomedicine at James Cook University and leads the day-to-day delivery of TropCOVID. His research focuses on measuring human immune responses to infection, particularly T-cell responses. Daniel oversees the study design, project coordination, laboratory immune monitoring, data analysis, and dissemination of findings. He is leading the development of practical, high throughput approaches for measuring COVID-19 immunity in Far North Queensland.

Dr Chanika Alahakoon — Co-Investigator and Clinical Research Lead

Chanika works with Daniel on the day-to-day delivery of TropCOVID. Her role includes participant coordination, informed consent, health-questionnaire collection, safe blood donation procedures, and study coordination. Drawing on her clinical and participant-facing research experience, Chanika helps ensure that participation is safe, respectful, and straightforward. She also contributes to data interpretation and the clinical relevance of the study findings.

A/Prof Julie Mudd — Clinical and Public Health Advisor

Julie provides advice on participant safety, consent procedures, clinical relevance, and the public-health interpretation of the research. She supports safe blood collection when required and helps ensure that TropCOVID remains relevant to the health priorities of Far North Queensland.

A/Prof Kate Miller — Senior Immunology Mentor

Kate provides senior scientific mentorship in immunology, laboratory methodology, research quality, and interpretation of immune-response data. Her guidance supports the measurement and interpretation of antibodies and T-cell responses, laboratory quality control, and the development of research outputs including publications and conference presentations.

A/Prof David Simcock — Strategic and Healthcare Engagement Advisor

David provides strategic advice on project leadership, governance, healthcare engagement, and collaboration across health and education networks. His role supports the project’s connection with healthcare-exposed communities and its longer-term development as an interdisciplinary health-research platform.

Prof Denise Doolan — External Immunology Advisor

Denise provides external scientific mentorship in human immunology, antigen-specific T-cell responses, and high-throughput immune-monitoring approaches. She advises on study design, assay selection, interpretation of immune-response data, and the broader contribution of TropCOVID to infectious-disease research.

Building Research Capacity in the Tropics

TropCOVID is designed not only to study COVID-19 immunity, but also to strengthen local capacity for future infectious-disease research in Far North Queensland. As the project develops, it may provide supervised research-training opportunities for James Cook University students and early-career researchers.