Kirsten Spann graduated with a PhD in Microbiology/parasitology form the University of Queensland in 1994. She then held research positions with CSIRO and the NIAID, Bethesda, USA. She returned to Australia and established her own laboratory at the Sir Albert Sakzewski Virus Research Centre/University of Queensland in 2006. Her research is concerned with the pathogenesis of the respiratory paramyxoviruses RSV and hMPV; primarily the mechanisms by which they evade and suppress the innate immune response and hijack cellular pathways for their own replication. The underlying aim of this research is to identify antiviral targets to improve outcomes for non-vaccine preventable viral infections. She is also investigating defects in the antiviral response associated with atopy and asthma, and how viral factors influence this response.