The role of bioinformatics at the Public and Environmental Health Reference Laboratories (PEHRL) in Queensland
The Public and Environmental Health Reference Laboratories (PEHRL) in Queensland play a critical role in supporting public health surveillance, outbreak investigation, and environmental monitoring across the state. As genomic technologies become increasingly integrated into routine laboratory practice, bioinformatics has emerged as an essential component in transforming sequencing data into actionable public health insights. This presentation will provide an overview of the role of bioinformatics within PEHRL, highlighting its contribution to infectious disease surveillance, public health investigations and clinical diagnostics.
Bio
Mitchell started working as a bioinformatician in 2008 during his undergraduate studies. He completed his doctorate in 2015, which focused on mobile genetic elements in bacteria. During this time, he developed several tools for visualising the dynamics of bacterial genomes. Following his studies he did a postdoctoral fellowship at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. There he developed a real-time pathogen surveillance program using genomics. Returning to Australia in 2018, Mitchell joined Microba and helped develop one of the first NATA approved metagenomic pathogen tests. In 2022 Mitchell joined Queensland’s public and environmental health reference laboratories as a bioinformatics specialist where he is now the acting team lead for the genomics hub.
