Ruiting Lan

Professor Ruiting Lan is a Professor of Medical Microbiology at the School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, UNSW Sydney. He teaches medical microbiology to science and medical students. His research focuses on pathogen evolution, genomic epidemiology, and host-pathogen interactions, particularly concerning gastrointestinal and respiratory bacterial pathogens.

Education:

• Undergraduate degree in China
• PhD (1992) and postdoctoral training at the University of Sydney

Research interests span bacterial pathogenesis, genomic adaptation in response to vaccines/antibiotics, and developing molecular typing tools like Multilevel Genome Typing (MGT). His lab studies Bordetella pertussis, Salmonella, Shigella, and Escherichia coli, emphasizing real-time outbreak surveillance and pathogenomics.

His publications predominantly explore genomic epidemiology, microbial evolution, and host-microbe interactions. Recent work highlights trends in antimicrobial resistance, probiotic therapeutics for metabolic disorders, and high-resolution pathogen tracking using whole-genome sequencing and AI-driven outbreak detection tools.

Awards and Honors:

• Fellow of Australian Society for Microbiology
• Guest Professor, Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention

He leads a research team developing the MGTdb platform for global pathogen surveillance and collaborates internationally on cholera, pertussis, and enteric pathogen genomics. His lab focuses on translating genomic insights into public health interventions.