Alexander Khromykh

Biography

Alexander Khromykh received his BSc degree in Physiology from the Tomsk State University, Russia, and his PhD degree in Molecular Virology from the State Centre for Virology and Biotechnology "Vector”, Russia. He worked as Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Ottawa in Canada. He then joined Sir Albert Sakzewski Virus Research Centre in Brisbane in 1992 and became a laboratory Head in 2001. He was awarded NH&MRC Senior Research Fellowship in 2004 and moved his laboratory to St Luica campus in 2005 to take an appointment with SCMB. He was the founding Director of the SCMB’s Centre for Infectious Disease Research and is currently the Deputy Director of the Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre, an NH&MRC Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Virology at SCMB.

Research Interest

The main areas of research of the group are molecular virology, viral pathogenesis, and virus-host interactions. The viruses studied in the group are encephalitic flaviviruses, primarily West Nile virus. The goal of the research is to determine the mechanisms by which these viruses cause disease in the hosts and to identify viral and host factors determining the outcome of infection. The group uses a range of classical and more modern approaches including molecular manipulations with viral infectious cDNA clones and replicons, transient and stable expression of viral proteins and noncoding RNAs, viral replication and virulence assays, microarrays, mass spectrometry, next generation sequencing analysis, siRNA knockdowns, and knockout cells and mice. Together, these approaches allow the group to perform detailed analysis of the effects of changes in the viral and host genomes that are likely to have a profound impact on virus replication and pathogenesis.