Research Activities

Dr Satzke enjoys collaborating with researchers from both developed and developing countries, and working with a laboratory-based research team to answer interesting microbiological questions with clinical impact.

Dr Satzke’s research explores the relationship between pneumococcal carriage and vaccination.  Catherine led the PneuCarriage project which identified the best pneumococcal serotyping method, including the ability to detect multiple serotype carriage.  This international project was funded by The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and based at MCRI.  Using additional funding from the Foundation and MCRI, the two top-performing methods have been established in Melbourne and South Africa, and are being used to identify their utility in measuring vaccine impact over traditional methods.

Catherine leads the microbiological research for an expanding program of work centred around vaccine impact studies in Fiji, Lao PDR and Mongolia, and contributes to vaccine trials and impact studies in Vietnam, and carriage studies in Indonesia.  She investigates the effect of environmental factors on pneumococcal gene expression, colonisation and disease; the effect of pneumococcal vaccination on colonisation, disease and transmission using in vivo models; and the differences in pneumococcal gene expression in carriage and disease states.

Research Keywords

Researching in the following areas: Vaccine development, Clinical trials, Serotyping, Pneumococcal disease, Vaccine impact