Natkunam Ketheesan 20th Lancefield International Symposium on Streptococci and Streptococcal Diseases 2017

Natkunam Ketheesan

Natkunam Ketheesan is an academic researcher. After obtaining an MD at the Vinnitsa National Medical University, he went on to complete a PhD in immunology at the University of Leeds. Ketheesan worked as a Research Fellow in the University of Leeds, University of Western Australia and the University of Queensland before accepting an academic position at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. Until recently he held a Personal Chair in Infection and Immunity. Ketheesan's research efforts focus on investigating the interactions between selected tropical bacterial pathogens and the human host. His group has been involved in determining host-pathogen interactions in infections caused by streptococci, Burkholderia pseudomallei and Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Using histological, immunological and functional tools his group has extensively characterised the rat autoimmune valvulitis model. Using this model, one of their major achievements has been to dissect the early events that lead to acute rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease (ARF/RHD).