YOUNG INVESTIGATOR AWARD

Dr. Teh received his MBBS and PhD training at the University of Melbourne. He currently serves as an Infectious Diseases Physician at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, a consultant at the Royal Melbourne Hospital, the Antimicrobial Stewardship Physician at Epworth Health Care, and is a research fellow at the University of Melbourne and at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. In these roles he plays a crucial role in the care of cancer and hematopoietic cell transplant patients, and serves as an educator for students, trainees and graduate students. He is national recognized, and has received numerous national and international awards, including Victorian Premier’s Clinical Researcher Prize for Health and Medical Research, Robert Maple-Brown Research Establishment Fellowship, a Victorian Public Health Care Award, and the University of Melbourne Chancellor’s PhD Prize for his graduate work. In addition, he serves on a number of major Australian guidelines committees, including the Australian Antifungal Guidelines Working Group, the Australasian Society of Infectious Diseases’ Vaccination Special Interest Group and Australia and New Zealand Mycoses Interest Group, and the Victorian COVID-19 Cancer Network, among others. He has also helped to develop the Australasian Society of Infectious Diseases’ Immune compromised host Special Interest Group for which he serves as the inaugural Deputy Chair. He has also gained international recognition early in his career, and has been invited to serve on the European Expert Group on Vaccination of Immunocompromised Patients, consulted for the World Health Organization on antimicrobial stewardship, and served as a local chair of the organizing committee the ICHS’s meeting in Melbourne.

There is no question that Dr. Teh’s major impact within our community has been his early contributions to research. His main areas of interest have been fungal infections, vaccines and vaccine responsiveness among immunosuppressed patients, antibiotic stewardship and the use of novel diagnostic platforms for infections in cancer patients. As young investigator, his work has already led publications in major Infectious Diseases and Hematology/Oncology journals, including Lancet Haematology, Clinical Infectious Diseases (CID), Blood Advances and Clinical Microbiology and Infection, as examples. He has already published over 60 manuscripts, including 27 as first author and 12 as senior author. His paper in CID was an important addition to the literature as an example, as this randomized trail compared high-dose influenza vaccine versus standard dose vaccine in autologous transplant recipients, and found equivalent efficacy from both vaccine approaches early (~2 months) post-HCT. Not only did Dr. Teh manage to develop this trial, but the results have helped to shape our local guidelines in Seattle in addressing early and repeat vaccines among transplant patients. Research that has the ability to shape guidelines at international centers, is the essence of impact – and is a reflection of the quality of his research. His ongoing work (and funding) to develop new tools to predict infections in cancer patients, has the potential to have even more impact in our field – an area of focus that is desperately in need of new ideas, dedicated research and novel methodology. His paper in Clinical Translatonal Immunology which uses immune profiling as a potential tool for predicting infection in multiple myeloma patients, is an example of this early work which may have a larger impact on multiple patient populations. As a young faculty member, Dr. Teh has garnered over 12 million dollars in grant support for ongoing research that supports his research enterprise, and will allow him to continue to make contributions to our field.

Dr. Teh is a dedicated clinician who focuses his research and clinical work in immunosuppressed patients. He is a decorated academic, a highly productive researcher and a thought leader in his field, who is emerging on the international stage as an expert in our field. The International Immunocompromised Host Society (ICHS) Young Investigator Award 2022, focuses on those who are rising stars in research among these high-risk populations, and there is little doubt Dr Teh is among the brightest. His past impact, leadership, and future promise make him an ideal candidate for this award.