Researcher

Scientia Professor Andrew Edwin Grulich

My Expertise

Epidemiology and prevention of HIV infection, including behavioural and biomedical prevention. Malignancies associated with HIV infection and other immunodeficient states and infections. HPV infection and anal cancer. Epidemiological methods.

Biography

Andrew is an internationally renowned authority in the transmission and prevention of HIV and sexually transmissible infections (STIs) and in the epidemiological relationship between immune deficiency, infection and cancer.

He graduated in Medicine in 1986 (MBBS, Adelaide) and completed a MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene (1990) before returning to Australia where he completed a PhD in the epidemiology of HIV-associated...view more

Andrew is an internationally renowned authority in the transmission and prevention of HIV and sexually transmissible infections (STIs) and in the epidemiological relationship between immune deficiency, infection and cancer.

He graduated in Medicine in 1986 (MBBS, Adelaide) and completed a MSc in Epidemiology at the London School of Hygiene (1990) before returning to Australia where he completed a PhD in the epidemiology of HIV-associated cancer at UNSW (1998).  He is a medical epidemiologist and a Public Health Physician (FAFPHM, 1995) and in 2015 was elected as a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. He has worked in HIV research for more than thirty years, and at the Kirby Institute (formerly known as the National Centre in HIV Epidemiology and Clinical Research) since 1995. His current research is mainly in two areas: first, the transmission and prevention of HIV and sexually transmitted infections in homosexual men, with a focus on biomedical and behavioural prevention, and second, the intersection between infection, altered immune function and cancer, particularly as it relates to human papillomavirus-related cancer and focussing on anal cancer. Through his membership of state and federal ministerial advisory committees, he has been centrally involved in the policy response to HIV prevention in Australia.

Research Interests:
Epidemiology and prevention of HIV infection, including behavioural and biomedical prevention particularly pre-exposure prophylaxis. Malignancies associated with HIV infection and other immunodeficient states and infections. Human Papillomavirus infection and anal cancer. Epidemiological methods.

Broad Research Areas:
Cancer, Epidemiology, HIV - AIDS, Infectious Diseases, Immunology

Qualifications:
MB BS Adel, PhD UNSW, MScEpid Lond, DipObst Flin, FAFPHM, DRACOG, FAAHMS

Society Memberships & Professional Activities:
International AIDS Society (member of Governing Council); Member and past president, Australasian Society for HIV Medicine; member, Australasian Epidemiology Association; International Papillomavirus society; Fellow of the Faculty of Public Health Medicine

Specific Research Keywords:
Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), Prevention, Cancer, Epidemiology, Immunology and Infectious Disease, Infectious disease control


My Grants

Andrew has held two NHMRC Principal Research Fellowships and currently holds an NHMRC Investigator grant (leadership level 3). In 2016-2020 he was named CI on grants totalling > $17million (>$56million in his career). Of these grants, in 2012-17 he was CIA on grants totalling $7.6million ($10.6million in his career). He has been successful as a CI in obtaining grants from the NHMRC (program, project, partnership schemes), Cancer Councils and Cure Cancer Australia, State and Federal Health Departments, the pharmaceutical industry, and international philanthropic organisations.


My Qualifications

1998 PhD, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW.

1990 MSc (Epid), London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, UK.

1986 MBBS, Adelaide University, South Australia.

 

Professional

1995 Fellow of the Australian Faculty of Public Health Medicine, Royal Australasian College of Physicians.

1988 Diploma in Obstetrics, Flinders Medical Centre, South Australia.

 


My Awards

2018

2015-

University of New South Wales Peter Baume Public Health Impact Award for career achievement and excellence in public health and significant international public health impact

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences


My Research Activities

Key highlights include

1. HIV treatment as prevention in gay men: The Opposites Attract study of over 300 HIV-serodiscordant gay men is a key foundation stone of the international undetectable = untransmissible movement and is extensively referenced in international guidelines.  

Bavinton BR, Pinto AN, Phanuphak N, Grinsztejn B, Prestage GP, Zablotska-Manos IB, Jin F, Fairley CK, Moore R, Roth N, Bloch M, Pell C, McNulty AM, Baker D, Hoy J, Tee BK, Templeton DJ, Cooper DA, Emery S, Kelleher A, Grulich AE and The Opposites Attract Study Group. Viral suppression and HIV transmission in homosexual male serodiscordant couples: an international cohort study. Lancet HIV. 2018;5:e438-e447

 

2. Pre-exposure prophylaxis in homosexual men: the Expanded PrEP Implementation in Communities (NSW) study of close to 10,000 participants was one fo the first studies to demonstrate the population-level impact of PrEP. Grulich AE, Guy R, Amin J, Jin F, Selvey C, Holden J, Schmidt HMA, Zablotska I, Price K, Whittaker B, Chant K, Cooper C, McGill S, Telfer B, Yeung B, Levitt G, Ogilvie E, Dharan NJ, Hammoud MA, Vaccher S, Watchirs-Smith L, McNulty A, Smith DJ, Allen DM, Baker D, Bloch M, Bopage RI, Brown K, Carr A, Carmody CJ, Collins KL, Finlayson R, Foster R, Jackson EY, Lewis DA, Lusk J, O’Connor CC, Ryder N, Vlahakis E, Read P, Cooper DA, for the Expanded PrEP Implementation in Communities New South Wales (EPIC-NSW) research group. Population-level effectiveness of rapid, targeted, high-coverage roll-out of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis in men who have sex with men: the EPIC-NSW study. Lancet HIV, 2018;5:e629-37i

3. The study of prevention of anal cancer (SPANC) was a 3-year cohort study of anal human papillomavirus infecion and related squamous intra-epithelial neoplasia in HIV-positive and HIV-negative homosexual men. 

Poynten IM, Jin F, Roberts JM, Templeton DJ, Law C, Cornall AM, Molano M, Machalek DA, Carr A, Farnsworth A, Tabrizi S, Phillips S, Fairley CK, Garland SM, Hillman RJ, Grulich AE on behalf of the Study of Prevention of Anal Cancer Study Team. The natural history of anal high-grade squamous intraepithelial lesions in gay and bisexual men. Clin Inf Diseases. 2021;72:853-861.

 

 

View less

Location

Level, 6, Wallace Wurth Building,
UNSW Sydney,
Kensington 2052

Contact

+61 (2) 9385 0956
+61 (2) 9385 0920