Professor Amanda Jane Leach AM
Senior Principal Research Fellow, Head of the Ear Health Research Program, Child and Maternal Health Division
Qualifications:
Master of Agricultural Science; PhD (Medicine).
Approved level of HDR supervision at Charles Darwin University:
Principal Supervisor for PhD
Location:
Darwin - Royal Darwin Hospital campus
Biography:
Professor Amanda Leach AM is leader of the Ear Health Research Program, Child Health Division.
Prof Leach has 157 career publications; her 1994 PhD publication (cited by 408) described for the first time that Indigenous infants acquire nasopharyngeal bacterial pathogens within weeks of life and that acquisition predicted onset of otitis media (OM).
Prof Leach led the 6-year NHMRC Centre of Research Excellence in Ear and Hearing Health of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children to 2021. Prof Leach led the update of the 2010 OM Guidelines including an OM app using the highest quality international GRADE approach, also endorsed as a Guideline by the Royal Australian College of General Practitioners. She was NHMRC lead investigator for two vaccine trials (PREVIX_COMBO and PREVIX_BOOST), a study of school readiness (VOICES), and is co-investigator of a CSOM treatment trial (IHEARBETA), two trials for treatment of OM in urban Aboriginal children (WATCH and INFLATE), two new trials of Aboriginal Health Practitioner ear support for Aboriginal children in hospital (Deadly Ears in Deadly Hands), and a trial of Azithromycin before Birth.
Prof Leach is Joint Chair with Professor Kelvin Kong, for the 5-year Hearing for Learning Initiative – a funding partnership between The Balnaves Foundation, the Northern Territory Government, and the Australian Government. The goal of this stepped-wedge cluster randomised trial of accredited and skills training and employment in 20 communities is to establish local, sustainable, clinical and education expertise to support elimination of social and educational disadvantage caused by ear disease and hearing loss.
In 2011 she won a 6-year NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship which was awarded the inaugural Elizabeth Blackburn Fellowship for top ranking female applicant in the clinical category.
In 2019 Prof Leach won the Telstra NT Business Woman of the Year, and in 2020, Prof Leach was made a Member (AM) of the Order of Australia for significant service to ear disease research, and to Indigenous child health.
Research Themes
- Child and Maternal Health
- Ear and Hearing Health
- Hare, K.M., Marsh, R.L., Binks, M.J., Grimwood, K., Pizzutto, S.J., Leach, A.J., Chang, A.B. & Smith-Vaughan, H.C. (2013). Quantitative PCR confirms culture as the gold standard for detection of lower airway infection by nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae in Australian Indigenous children with bronchiectasis. Journal of Microbiological Methods, 92(3), 270-272.
- Marsh, R.L., Binks, M.J., Beissbarth, J., Christensen, P., Morris, P.S., Leach, A.J. & Smith-Vaughan, H.C. (2012). Quantitative PCR of ear discharge from Indigenous Australian children with acute otitis media with perforation supports a role for Alloiococcus otitidis as a secondary pathogen. BMC Ear, Nose and Throat Disorders, 12, 11.
- Binks, M.J., Temple, B., Kirkham, L.A., Wiertsema, S.P., Dunne, E.M., Richmond, P.C., Marsh, R.L., Leach, A.J. & Smith-Vaughan, H.C. (2012). Molecular surveillance of true nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae: an evaluation of PCR screening assays. PLoS One, 7(3), e34083.
- McAllister, L.J., Ogunniyi, A.D., Stroeher, U.H., Leach, A.J. & Paton, J.C. (2011). Contribution of serotype and genetic background to virulence of serotype 3 and serogroup 11 pneumococcal isolates. Infection and Immunity, 79(12), 4839-4849.
- Hare, K.M., Smith-Vaughan, H.C. & Leach, A.J. (2011). Viability of respiratory pathogens cultured from nasopharyngeal swabs stored for up to 12 years at -70°C in skim milk tryptone glucose glycerol broth. Journal of Microbiological Methods, 86(3), 364-367.
- Binks, M.J., Cheng, A.C., Smith-Vaughan, H., Sloots, T., Nissen, M., Whiley, D., McDonnell, J. & Leach, A.J. (2011). Viral-bacterial co-infection in Australian Indigenous children with acute otitis media. BMC Infectious Diseases, 11, 161.
- Jacoby, P., Carville, K.S., Hall, G., Riley, T.V., Bowman, J., Leach, A.J., Lehmann, D. & the Kalgoorlie Otitis Media Research Project Team. (2011). Crowding and other strong predictors of upper respiratory tract carriage of otitis media-related bacteria in Australian Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal children. Pediatric Infectious Disease Journal, 30(6), 480-485.
- Harvey, R.M., Stroeher, U.H., Ogunniyi, A.D., Smith-Vaughan, H.C., Leach, A.J. & Paton, J.C. (2011). A variable region within the genome of Streptococcus pneumoniae contributes to strain-strain variation in virulence. PLoS One, 6(5), e19650.
- Jacups, S.P., Morris, P.S. & Leach, A.J. (2011). Haemophilus influenzae type b carriage in Indigenous children and children attending childcare centers in the Northern Territory, Australia, spanning pre- and post-vaccine eras. Vaccine, 29(16), 3083-3088.
- Slade, G.D., Bailie, R.S., Roberts-Thomson, K., Leach, A.J., Raye, I., Endean, C., Simmons, B. & Morris, P. (2011). Effect of health promotion and fluoride varnish on dental caries among Australian Aboriginal children: results from a community-randomized controlled trial. Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, 39(1), 29-43.
Click here to view more Amanda Leach publications in PubMed.
