MSHC researchers win Eureka Prize

Professor Catriona Bradshaw, Dr Lenka Vodstrcil, Dr Erica Plummer and the Women’s Microbiome Innovation Group have been awarded the 2026 Australian Infectious Diseases Research Centre Eureka Prize for Infectious Diseases Research. 

This prestigious recognition highlights the power of research that challenges long-held assumptions and the findings are already influencing clinical practice internationally.   

Through their landmark StepUp trial at Melbourne Sexual Health Centre (part of Bayside Health and supported by Monash University), Professor Bradshaw and her team demonstrated that bacterial vaginosis (BV) is sexually transmissible and that treating male partners can reduce recurrence in women by more than 60%. 

Published in the New England Journal of Medicine, these findings are already transforming clinical practice globally. 

We are incredibly proud of the lifechanging work our clinician-researchers continue to do, influencing health outcomes for our patients across Victoria and around the world.