Murdoch University’s Institute for Immunology and Infectious Diseases (IIID) is the first research laboratory in Australia to obtain a prestigious new international accreditation.

Director of Laboratory Services, Associate Professor Mark Watson, said the IIID was the first in Australia to be accredited under the new Good Clinical Laboratory Practice (GCLP) standard.

"This accreditation recognises the IIID as one of Australia’s top research facilities when it comes to quality management systems,” Associate Professor Watson said.

“It reflects our long history of quality management, commitment to continually improving standards for delivery of clinical and clinically related research data.” 

Improving outcomes for global burden diseases

The IIID aims to reduce the impact of disease on people and communities around the world by partnering with local and international clinicians, scientists and industry groups to investigate diseases of high global burden such as HIV, hepatitis C, Dengue and other infections,  multiple sclerosis, autoimmune diseases, cancer, immune mediated drug reactions (drug hypersensitivity) and improve clinical practices.

The ultimate goal of IIID is to use high throughput and cutting-edge technologies to improve individual and public health by contributing to the discovery and translation of precision medicine approaches for prevention, early diagnosis and targeted therapies of high global burden diseases

IIID Director, Professor Simon Mallal, said the GCLP accreditation would not have been possible without the institute’s incredibly talented and hardworking multi-disciplinary team.

“It reinforces the confidence of our research collaborators in the rigor, reproducibility and quality of our work and builds on the long-standing model of excellence that we have subscribed to,” Professor Mallal said.

The IIID was one of the first research labs in Australia to obtain National Association of Testing Authorities of Australia (NATA) certification and to date remain one of only a handful of labs across Australia to achieve this certification.

It is only the only Australian research lab accredited to perform sequence-based HLA typing in compliance to the standards of the American Society for Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI).

The IIID collaborates with clinicians and researchers across the country and has received support from the Western Australian and Federal Governments.

International alliance partners include Vanderbilt University and Vanderbilt University Medical Center. A number of active collaborations also exist between the IIID and centres across North America, Europe, Asia and Africa.

For more information about the IIID, visit its website.