An Australian immunologist is developing a blood test that could help identify patients at risk of severe respiratory disease from the moment they arrive in hospital.
A blood test designed to predict which patients with respiratory infections are likely to deteriorate could ultimately allow clinicians to intervene earlier and tailor treatment to individual risk.
Professor Katherine Kedzierska, laboratory head at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and Distinguished Professor at the University of Melbourne, is developing the test following her team’s discovery that elevated activity of the OLAH (oleoyl-ACP hydrolase) gene is associated with severe disease across influenza, covid-19, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV).
The work has earned Professor Kedzierska the 2026 GSK Award for Research Excellence and a $150,000 grant to support further development and validation of the test.
It’s an award that means a great deal to her and recognises some two decades spent trying to understand why some people recover quickly from respiratory viruses and others become critically ill.
“When I began my career, I simply wanted to understand how the immune system protects us from disease. I never imagined that question would take me through the 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic or covid-19,” she said.
“It is an incredible honour to receive the 2026 GSK Award for Research Excellence. This recognition reflects the dedication of an extraordinary team of researchers and collaborators whom I have had the pleasure of working alongside over many years.”
Professor Kedzierska told Allergy & Respiratory Republic that crucially, the OLAH signal appeared to be detectable before patients became obviously critically ill.
The initial finding came from patients infected with H7N9 avian influenza in China in 2013, when clinicians were unable to determine at admission which patients would subsequently deteriorate.
“Our initial findings were from when the avian influenza virus H7 and 9 emerged in China in 2013,” she said.
“We looked at the patients who came to the hospital, and we talked to the clinicians, and clinicians said ‘all of those patients look the same to us. We had no idea [at admission] who would die two or three weeks or a month later’.”
The researchers subsequently found a similar signal in children admitted to hospital with covid-19, with high OLAH levels associated with later development of life-threatening disease.
Professor Kedzierska said laboratory experiments suggested elevated OLAH was not simply accompanying severe disease but could be driving harmful inflammation.
“Once the inflammation is out of control, it is really detrimental to the point it’s life threatening,” she said.
The implications may also extend beyond acute respiratory infections. Professor Kedzierska said her team was investigating OLAH in other inflammatory conditions, including asthma, COPD, and cancer.
“Asthma elevates levels of OLAH and that’s without viral infection, and that’s again with increased inflammation in the lungs,” she told ARR.
Other specialities such as rheumatology and gastroenterology, where inflammation is a common driver of many diseases, are also paying close attention to the research, she said.
The team already has a laboratory blood test capable of measuring OLAH, with results available within a day, but considerably more validation is required before it could enter clinical practice.
“We’ve got a rapid blood test in the lab, and we screen every single blood sample that comes through a lab,” Professor Kedzierska said.
“To be sure, and for this to go to clinic, we need to screen lots of patient cohorts, healthy, unhealthy, and across different diseases.”
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Initially, the PCR-based test is likely to be aimed at hospital rather than primary care, where it could help clinicians determine which patients are likely to recover quickly and which are at risk of ICU admission or need earlier intervention and more aggressive treatment.
A simpler point-of-care test suitable for general practice remains a longer-term ambition and could potentially help GPs determine which patients can remain in the community and which warrant closer monitoring or referral.
If successfully translated into clinical practice, Professor Kedzierska said OLAH testing could also support more individualised treatment decisions.
“Respiratory infections are often a race between the virus and our immune system. Our goal is to better understand why that balance tips towards severe disease in some people, so we can identify those at greatest risk earlier and ultimately develop therapies that prevent the immune response from causing further harm,” she said.
“This award and accompanying grant will help us take the next step by advancing research into new ways of predicting severe disease and evaluating potential therapies that could improve outcomes for patients.”
The researchers are now screening larger patient cohorts to establish how reliably OLAH differentiates healthy people and those with mild illness from patients at risk of severe disease.
Samples are being recruited through hospitals including The Alfred, Austin Health, the Royal Melbourne Hospital, and Royal Darwin Hospital.
The finding could also have implications for future pandemics and emerging viruses because OLAH appears to represent a common danger signal rather than one specific to a single respiratory pathogen.
Professor Kedzierska said researchers internationally were now examining OLAH in their own patient cohorts, while her team was preparing to publish findings in the next year or two.
“What really makes me happy is that people from all over the world now are looking in their cohorts, patient cohorts, and they go, wow, OLAH is one of the key genes,” she said.
Professor Jason Trubiano, infectious diseases physician and Head of Infectious Diseases at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, said Professor Kedzierska’s ability to connect clinical care with scientific discovery is what makes her research so powerful.
“When a patient comes into hospital with a respiratory infection, one of the biggest challenges is understanding who may go on to become seriously unwell,” he said.
“Katherine’s research is helping us get closer to answering that question by connecting what we see in patients at the bedside with what is driving the immune response.”
Dr Alan Paul, executive country medical director at GSK Australia, paid tribute to Professor Kedzierska and said her “dedication to understanding one of the biggest challenges in infectious diseases has the potential to transform the way clinicians predict and manage severe respiratory illness”.
“For 46 years, the GSK Award for Research Excellence has celebrated Australian researchers whose discoveries have advanced medicine and improved patient care. Professor Kedzierska’s work is a powerful example of that legacy, and we are proud to support the next phase of her research,” he said.
“For 46 years, the GSK Award for Research Excellence has celebrated Australian researchers whose discoveries have advanced medicine and improved patient care. Professor Kedzierska’s work is a powerful example of that legacy, and we are proud to support the next phase of her research.”
Previous recipients of the award include some of Australia’s most distinguished scientists, including, Professor Georgina Long AO and the late Professor Richard Scolyer AO (2018); Professor Brendan Crabb AC (2019); Professor Mark Febbraio (2020); Professor Jamie Cooper AO and the late Professor Rinaldo Bellomo AO (2021); Professor Georgia Chenevix-Trench AC (2022); Professor David Komander (2023); Professor Matthew Kiernan AO (2024); and Professor Edward Holmes (2025).
