Professor Janet Davies

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National Allergy Centre of Excellence Repository & Discovery Hub Lead, Respiratory Allergy Stream Co-chair

Associate Dean of Research, Faculty of Health, Queensland University of Technology
Head, Allergy Research Group, Queensland University of Technology
Director QoVAX Program, Metro North Health

As NACE Repository & Discovery Hub Lead, Professor Janet Davies will oversee the design of a National Allergy Repository to harness the power of big data analysis to drive individualised healthcare. In her role as Respiratory Allergy Stream co-Chair, she is also helping to identify the priorities of Australians living with allergic rhinitis and allergic asthma and support the work of the NACE in synthesising and harmonising respiratory allergy research across Australia.

Prof Davies leads the QUT Allergy Research Group and is Associate Dean of Research for the QUT Faculty of Health. As the Assistant Director of Research for Australia's largest hospital network, Metro North Health (2015-2021), she developed research strategy, policy and chaired the clinical research education program. As Director of the QoVAX Program her team developed and implemented a digitally-integrated biobank and linked data repository within the public health system with an eRecruitment platform for a series of COVID-19 vaccination studies with over 10,000 participants tracking responses and health outcomes.

The underlying theme of Prof Davies’ research is antigen-antibody interactions. Her work primarily focuses on applied allergy research to improve diagnosis, treatment and understanding of the immunological mechanism underlying allergic respiratory diseases. This extends to leading the multidisciplinary AusPollen aerobiology partnership (2016-2020) that is establishing the standardised national pollen monitoring network and three associated ARC Discovery Projects.

Prof Davies is an inventor on a patent granted in Australia and USA that underpin development towards more specific immunodiagnosis and treatment for subtropical grass pollen allergy. The NHMRC, ARC, the National Foundation For Medical Research Innovation, and The Allergy and Immunology Foundation of Australasia, support her recent research.

RECENT PUBLICATIONS

Airborne grass pollen and thunderstorms influence emergency department asthma presentations in a subtropical climate. Environmental Research. July 2023

Does pollen exposure influence innate immunity to SARS-CoV-2 in allergy or asthma? The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. May 2023

The AusPollen partnership project: Allergenic airborne grass pollen seasonality and magnitude across temperate and subtropical eastern Australia, 2016-2020. Environmental Research. Nov 2022

Compound impacts of climate change, urbanization and biodiversity loss on allergic disease. International Journal of Epidemiology. Oct 2022

Satellite-observed shifts in C3/C4 abundance in Australian grasslands are associated with rainfall patterns. Remote Sensing of Environment. May 2022

Thunderstorm Asthma in Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis: The TAISAR study. The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology. May 2022

Analysis of quality control outcomes of grass pollen identification and enumeration: experience matters. Aerobiologia. Dec 2021

Characteristics of emergency patients admitted to hospital with asthma: a population-based cohort study in Queensland, Australia. Emergency Medicine Australasia. May 2021

Tracking Seasonal Changes in Diversity of Pollen Allergen Exposure: Targeted Metabarcoding of a Subtropical Aerobiome. Science of the Total Environment. Dec 2020

Biogeographical variation in specific IgE recognition of temperate and subtropical grass pollen allergens in allergic rhinitis patients. Clinical and Translational Immunology. Feb 2020

SELECTED STUDIES