About
Dr Leitner is a Postdoctoral Research Officer in the Systems Virology Laboratory.
Dr Leitner is a laboratory-based Scientist with skills in the areas of Genetics, Virology, Microbiology, and Bioinformatics. He completed a Bachelor of Science (Honours Class 1) at The University of Queensland (UQ) in 2020 and completed his PhD investigating mosquito-Wolbachia-virus interactions at UQ in early 2025.
Research Skills
Dr Leitner has expertise in molecular techniques for investigating flavivirus–host interactions. These include:
• Viral infection of cells and organoids
• Immuno-plaque assay (iPA)
• Differential gene expression (DGE) analysis
• RNA sequencing (RNA-seq)
• Single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq)
• Spatial transcriptomics
Area of Interest
Understanding the mechanism of how neurotropic flaviviruses propagate in the human central nervous system (CNS) and cause neurological diseases. Characterising cell tropism of Dengue virus, Japanese Encephalitis virus (JEV), West Nile virus (WNV), and Zika virus (ZIKV) in human brain organoids to determine the effect of the virus on gene expression in infected and bystander cells using scRNA-Seq.