Rate My Professor Gough Au

Dr. Gough Au is a Conjoint Senior Lecturer in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy, with a focus in Immunology and Microbiology, Faculty of Health and Medicine, University of Newcastle, Australia. He earned his PhD in 2005, Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences with First Class Honours in 2000, and Bachelor of Biomedical Sciences in 1999, all from the University of Newcastle. Au commenced his research career as an NHMRC Industry Research Fellow from 2007 to 2011, investigating naturally occurring viruses with selective anti-cancer properties for the treatment of melanoma, multiple myeloma, and malignant glioma. From 2004 to 2007, he served as Research Director and Postdoctoral Scientist at The University of Newcastle Research Associates (TUNRA) in the School of Biomedical Sciences and Pharmacy. He holds a conjoint Postdoctoral Research Fellow position at the University of Newcastle while contributing to industry and government research sectors.

Au's research specializations include oncolytic virotherapy, virology, and cancer biology. With over 18 years of experience in academic and industry settings, he advanced picornavirus research and the development of novel oncolytic viruses for human cancers during his role as Director of Research and Development at Viralytics Ltd from 2011 to 2019. More recently, as Senior Research Consultant and Project Manager at CSIRO's Australian Centre for Disease Preparedness, his work has centered on zoonotic and emerging viruses, including Risk Group 4 pathogens such as filoviruses and henipaviruses. He contributed to developing a ferret model for SARS-CoV-2 and preclinical testing of vaccine candidates amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Key publications encompass 'Natural Hendra Virus Infections in Captive Australian Black Flying Foxes, Queensland, Australia' (2026, Emerging Infectious Diseases), 'Foals of mares vaccinated for Hendra virus have a suboptimal response to HeV vaccination' (2024, Veterinary Microbiology), 'SARS-CoV and SARS-CoV-2 display limited neuronal infection and lack the ability to transmit within synaptically connected axons in stem cell-derived human neurons' (2024, Journal of Neurovirology), 'The swan genome and transcriptome, it is not all black and white' (2023, Genome Biology), and 'Oncolytic Coxsackievirus A21 as a novel therapy for multiple myeloma' (2007, British Journal of Haematology).