0 00:00:04,019 --> 00:00:06,530 Our third finalist is Emily Johnston from 1 00:00:06,539 --> 00:00:08,689 the School of Pharmacy and Medical Sciences. 2 00:00:08,720 --> 00:00:11,649 Her presentation title is mosquito Research Saving 3 00:00:11,659 --> 00:00:14,310 Lives with panty hose and paper clips. 4 00:00:24,579 --> 00:00:28,149 I came to Australia to study the deadliest animal in the world. 5 00:00:28,520 --> 00:00:31,729 Now, there may be some Australian audience members thinking Strus 6 00:00:31,860 --> 00:00:35,810 science has finally recognized the importance of the drop bears. 7 00:00:37,310 --> 00:00:39,770 But I'm not studying drop bears because around the 8 00:00:39,779 --> 00:00:43,049 world by transmitting diseases like malaria and dengue fever, 9 00:00:43,060 --> 00:00:45,650 mosquitoes kill more than a million people every year 10 00:00:45,659 --> 00:00:47,869 making them the deadliest animal on the planet. 11 00:00:48,590 --> 00:00:49,380 Now, in Australia, 12 00:00:49,389 --> 00:00:52,490 the most common mosquito borne disease is Ross river virus and 13 00:00:52,500 --> 00:00:55,209 it occurs at high rates in some areas but not others. 14 00:00:55,470 --> 00:00:59,840 My question is why, what is it about certain areas that makes them breed disease? 15 00:00:59,849 --> 00:01:01,520 If we can understand the environmental 16 00:01:01,529 --> 00:01:03,799 factors that contribute to disease transmission, 17 00:01:04,050 --> 00:01:05,940 then we can alter the environment or target 18 00:01:05,949 --> 00:01:08,319 our control efforts to prevent human infections. 19 00:01:08,870 --> 00:01:10,019 But to answer that question, 20 00:01:10,029 --> 00:01:13,400 I had to find out where the infected mosquitoes were in South Australia. 21 00:01:13,410 --> 00:01:16,669 And traditionally testing mosquitoes for virus has always been difficult. 22 00:01:17,199 --> 00:01:18,519 So I used a new technique. 23 00:01:18,730 --> 00:01:21,459 It takes these cards which are embedded with virus, 24 00:01:21,470 --> 00:01:23,980 preserving chemicals and coats them in honey, 25 00:01:24,360 --> 00:01:27,169 mosquitoes will come to feed on the honey and in the process 26 00:01:27,180 --> 00:01:29,879 spit virus onto the card where it can later be detected. 27 00:01:30,190 --> 00:01:33,739 Now, no one had ever used this technique in a broad scale virus survey before. 28 00:01:33,750 --> 00:01:34,870 So I had to adapt it. 29 00:01:35,260 --> 00:01:39,980 I developed new traps and set them at over 100 field sites across South Australia 30 00:01:40,300 --> 00:01:43,470 and I captured over 20,000 hungry mosquitoes and let them feed on 31 00:01:43,480 --> 00:01:46,300 the card for a week before testing the cards for a virus. 32 00:01:46,879 --> 00:01:49,599 Now, you may not think that these traps look very impressive, 33 00:01:49,610 --> 00:01:51,459 but science doesn't have to be beautiful. 34 00:01:51,470 --> 00:01:53,959 It has to be effective and these traps are proving 35 00:01:53,970 --> 00:01:57,110 to be our most sensitive method of detecting infected mosquitoes. 36 00:01:57,349 --> 00:02:00,379 I found three types of infection, ross river virus, Barma 37 00:02:00,489 --> 00:02:01,370 forus virus 38 00:02:01,529 --> 00:02:04,769 and Stratford virus, which has never before been found in South Australia. 39 00:02:05,239 --> 00:02:06,569 I now have the virus data. 40 00:02:06,580 --> 00:02:09,139 I need to conduct my analysis and I'm collecting 41 00:02:09,149 --> 00:02:12,839 publicly available data about the environment surrounding my traps, 42 00:02:12,850 --> 00:02:14,669 like the density of human housing, 43 00:02:14,679 --> 00:02:18,869 the biodiversity of mammals and the ratio of green space to buildings to see if 44 00:02:18,880 --> 00:02:21,500 any of those environmental factors can link 45 00:02:21,509 --> 00:02:23,850 these virus hotspots that I've shown here. 46 00:02:24,679 --> 00:02:28,410 But the most exciting part of my research so far has been the success of this method. 47 00:02:28,539 --> 00:02:30,289 Public health officials in Victoria, 48 00:02:30,300 --> 00:02:33,110 Queensland and Western Australia have been in contact with us. 49 00:02:33,119 --> 00:02:35,970 About implementing this technique for their surveillance next year. 50 00:02:36,509 --> 00:02:38,520 And I developed these traps in a tight budget. 51 00:02:38,589 --> 00:02:42,399 I used recycled milk cartons, panty hose and paper clips to make the traps. 52 00:02:42,410 --> 00:02:45,759 Each trap costs less than a dollar and can be reused for the whole season. 53 00:02:46,119 --> 00:02:47,960 That was important to me because the majority of 54 00:02:47,970 --> 00:02:51,660 mosquito borne disease risk happens in economically impoverished countries 55 00:02:51,809 --> 00:02:52,470 in India. 56 00:02:52,479 --> 00:02:55,960 For example, where about a quarter of the population lives on a dollar a day. 57 00:02:55,990 --> 00:02:59,199 There are 33 million cases of dengue infection every year. 58 00:02:59,789 --> 00:03:03,000 With my low budget virus surveillance and spatial analysis method, 59 00:03:03,110 --> 00:03:05,610 I can help any country regardless of resources, 60 00:03:05,619 --> 00:03:07,759 find out where their deadliest animals occur, 61 00:03:07,770 --> 00:03:11,179 why they're there and how we can stop them from infecting humans. 62 00:03:11,210 --> 00:03:11,800 Thanks.