Congratulations to Pramila Maniam, Research Officer in Dr David Reid’s team at QIMR Berghofer on receiving an award for her Oral Abstract Presentation at The 16th Australasian Cystic Fibrosis Conference 2026 held in Geelong, Victoria from the 7th to 9th August 2026.
Pramila presented “Transcriptomic signatures associated with clearance and persistence of Mycobacterium abscessus pulmonary infection” which shared the preliminary findings from the FORMaT T-Cell Discovery Study’s bulk sequencing, single-cell sequencing and plasma proteomics.
The FORMaT T-Cell Discovery Study involves collaboration between Pramila Maniam, Ama-Tawiah Kamota, Dr David Reid, Severine Navarro, Professor Claire Wainwright, Felicia Goh and the broader FORMaT project team. This discovery study supports the single-cell and proteomic analyses with the aim of identifying biomarkers of Mycobacterium abscessus infection and uncovering the mechanistic pathways associated with bacterial clearance or persistence in people with and without cystic fibrosis. The insights from this important study will hopefully help to inform novel therapeutic strategies for treating mycobacterium abscessus pulmonary infections.
This award reflects the outstanding team effort, and significant contributions from Yan Lu from Severine’s laboratory, Rebecca Johnston and Sharon Hoyte from the QIMR Berghofer bioinformatics team, and Gunter Hartel and Lachlan Webb from the QIMR Berghofer Statistical team.