Research in infectious diseases includes influenza, tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS, anaerobic oral bacteria, tumour virology and general diagnostic microbiology.

Development of rapid and accurate methods for the diagnosis of bacterial and viral infections is an important component of the diagnostic microbiology research. Oral microbiology research encompasses studies on the spectrum of anaerobic bacteria in periodontal infections and on biofilms and systemic effects on disease. The Influenza centre focuses on measuring the immune responses to vaccines (preclinical and clinical trials) and more specifically on vaccines against avian influenza. HIV/AIDS research focuses on elucidating the pathogenesis of HIV infection as well as co-infection with M. tuberculosis using cell-culture studies. Mycobacterial research ranges from the identification of novel antigens for potential use in new TB vaccines and diagnostic tests, population based studies on drug resistance, genotypic characterisation of M. tuberculosis isolates from high endemic countries, development and evaluation of surrogate markers for disease progression and protective immunity, and studies that elucidate the molecular and immunological nature of the host- pathogen interaction in TB. Tumour virology exploits viral models in order to elucidate basic regulatory mechanisms and principles of the host cell, and aberrant regulatory networks in cancer.

The established methodology includes gene technology, molecular biology, immunological methods, cell sorting and flow cytometry, cell culture and animal models, bioinformatics and functional genomics such as gene expression and promoter microarrays, proteomics, preclinical and clinical trials.