The Univeristy of Melbourne The Royal Melbourne Hopspital

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

EDUCATION

Research Projects

Project: Reprogramming Immunity by Engineering B cells

Wheatley Group

B cells are a central arm of the adaptive immune system designed to recognise foreign antigens and make antibodies. Using modern Crispr/Cas nucleic acid editing tools, we will alter the specificity of the B cell receptor to drive high affinity recognition of viral antigens. Such cells will be critical tools enabling the further characterisation of B cell differentiation and selection using a range of in vitro and in vivo models of viral infection or vaccination.

Contact project supervisor for further
information and application enquiries

Project Supervisor

Dr Adam Wheatley

Project Co-supervisor

Dr Hyon-Xhi Tan

Project availability
PhD/MPhil

Wheatley Group

a.wheatley@unimelb.edu.au

3 vacancies

Themes
Immunology
Viral Infectious Diseases
Cross Cutting Disciplines
Discovery Research

The Wheatley group is interested in factors that program broad and durable humoural immunity against infectious pathogens  such as SARS-CoV2 and influenza. Our research involves immunological charactersiaton of B cells and antibodies, development of assays and tools to study antiviral immunity, novel vaccine design and the development of monoclonal antibodies to treat or prevent infections.