A/Prof. Lea-Ann Kirkham is an infectious disease microbiologist at the Telethon Kids Institute in Perth, Western Australia. She co-leads the Bacterial Respiratory Infectious Disease Group, with a mission to develop improved therapies to prevent and treat childhood ear and lung diseases. She has invented a nasal spray vaccine that prevents otitis media in mice and is now translating this into an NHMRC-funded first-in-human trial to evaluate the safety and tolerability of this novel vaccine. A/Prof Kirkham is an investigator on a Phase 2b clinical trial of an anti-biofilm therapy to prevent repeat grommet surgery. She also leads Industry-funded vaccine studies to develop the best approach to protect high-risk infants from otitis media and other respiratory tract infections.