Background
Robbie is an experienced intensive care nurse who moved into research in 2020, motivated by a desire to better understand and address the devastating effects of infection. Since assisting with the WA COVID-19 response, he has contributed consultation and advice to groups developing clinical practice guidance, including work relevant to major state and national initiatives in sepsis and peripheral intravenous catheter management.

Research
Initially, Robbie focussed on evaluating then-emerging antibiotics and natural products for their potential as adjunct therapies for patients with extensively drug-resistant infection.

Robbie subsequently shifted from the study of active respiratory infection towards infection prevention. His PhD, undertaken in Professor Mark Nicol's clinical microbiology research group, aims to develop a robust platform for rapidly identifying and characterising bacterial interactions within polymicrobial communities.

Understanding how microbiomes develop, stabilise and deteriorate can provide insight into which organisms influence one another. This is important for identifying commensal bacteria capable of inhibiting clinically significant pathogens. By developing a high-throughput platform to screen for these interactions, this new method will allow potentially important relationships to be identified very rapidly. This directly addresses a current bottleneck in the development of live biotherapeutic approaches for infection prevention.

Collaborations and other research roles
Robbie actively collaborates with Dr Aron Chakera (MBBS PhD), Dr Lucy Furfaro, and Dr Kieran Mulroney. Robbie works as a research assistant for Assoc/Prof. Katherine Hammer, investigating the antibacterial activity of natural products indigenous to Australia, particularly essential oils and honey.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ongoing)
Thesis as a series of papers
Working title: Development of novel approaches to study growth and interactions of commensal nasopharyngeal bacteria of children in polymicrobial culture
Supervisors: Prof. M. Nicol, Assoc/Prof. K. Hammer, Dr R. Kar Bahal

Master of Infectious Diseases (2021)
Current prospects for treating multi-drug resistant cystic fibrosis-associated Pseudomonas aeruginosa: essential oils and new β-lactam/β-lactamase inhibitor combinations
Supervisors: Assoc/Prof. K. Hammer, Dr Ana Tai (SCGH), Dr Papanin Putsathit

Infection Prevention and Management
  Biofilms - dispersal & antisepsis
  Antimicrobial stewardship & antimicrobial resistance
  The human microbiome as a protective factor
  Antimicrobial drug discovery
Translational Research
  Direct collaboration with clinicians
  Consumer engagement
  Policy/protocol development
Disease States of Interest
  Sepsis & Post-sepsis syndrome
  Bacterial pneumonia (CAP/HAP/VAP)
  Hospital acquired infections (ESKAPEE)