The Univeristy of Melbourne The Royal Melbourne Hopspital

A joint venture between The University of Melbourne and The Royal Melbourne Hospital

Professor Dale Godfrey

Professor Dale Godfrey

Professor Dale Godfrey

(03) 8344 6831 | godfrey@unimelb.edu.au

Position:
Laboratory Head
Theme(s):
Immunology
Unit(s):
Department of Microbiology and Immunology (DMI)

Professor Dale Godfrey was awarded his PhD in 1990 from Monash University and then worked as a postdoc Hoffman-La Roche in New Jersey, USA and then DNAX Research Institute in Palo Alto, USA. He returned to the Centenary Institute at The University of Sydney in 1994, then returned to Monash University, Department of Immunology, as a Research Fellow and Senior Research Fellow. In 2003, Dale moved to The University of Melbourne, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, where he now works as an NHMRC L3 Investigator Fellow.

Godfrey is also a Fellow of the Australian Academy for Health and Medical Sciences, Past President of the Australasian Society for Immunology, and founder and Past President of the Melbourne Immunotherapy Network. Godfrey’s area of interest has for many years been in the field of unconventional T cells including their development, function and therapeutic potential. With the arrival of COVID in 2020, Godfrey switched some of his lab’s expertise toward research into ways to combat what was clearly a serious problem. This work resulted in a prototype point of care SARS-CoV-2 neutralising antibody test, SARS-CoV-2 neutralising nanobodies, as well as a protein subunit SARS-CoV-2 vaccine which has just completed a phase I clinical trial.

  • Key Achievements
    • As a postdoc, Dale defined the DN1-DN4 pathway of early T cell development and coined the term ‘b-selection’. Upon returning to Australia, Dale began to focus on unconventional T cells and he now supervises a large team of scientists. The focus of this team is to understand the biology and immunotherapeutic potential of unconventional T cells including NKT cells, MAIT cells, CD1a, CD1b and CD1c-restricted T cells and gd T cells. Dale was Vice-President and President of the Australasian Society for Immunology (ASI) between 2012 to 2015. In 2016, he was awarded a Derrick Rowley Medal and Lifetime membership for the ASI in recognition of his service to the society. Dale has published approximately 200 papers, he has over 17000 citations with an average 87 cites per paper and his H-index is 68. 

    Publications
    Loading ORCID data…

Full University of Melbourne profile