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Research Groups
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Lewin Group
The main focus of the Lewin group is to understand why HIV infection persists on antiretroviral therapy, to develop new strategies to eliminate latency and to define the biological determinants of immune reconstitution and factors that drive liver disease in HIV-hepatitis B virus co-infection.
Current Projects
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HIV Latency Reversing Agents
The biggest hurdle in curing HIV infection in an individual is that the virus remains dormant in some populations of cells, hiding from the immune system and the cocktail of antiviral drugs. This is described as HIV latency and poses a major barrier to curing HIV. The Lewin-Cameron Lab’s research focuses on agents that ‘wake up’ dormant HIV hiding in the body and reverse HIV latency. One group of drugs they strongly focus on is histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACi).
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Dendritic cells and immunomodulation in HIV
Dendritic cell-T cell interactions in different tissues are critical in generating T cell immunity and this interaction is important in controlling productive HIV infection and latency in the T cells. The Lewin-Cameron Lab are exploring how different types of dendritic cells can control the establishment, reversal and maintenance of HIV latency. One major interest of this group is the role of immune check points and their blockade in DC-induced HIV latency.
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HIV Reservoir Virology
The HIV Reservoir Virology group’s major focus is on unravelling the viral determinants of HIV latency. They use innovative virological techniques to understand how the virus can persist on ART using CD4+ T-cells from HIV-infected individuals on ART. The reservoir virology group also has a major interest in developing assays to better quantify HIV persistence on antiretroviral therapy.
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HIV and co-infections
Co-infections with viral or bacterial pathogens cause significant morbidity in patients with HIV. In the case of HIV/HBV co-infection, morbidity and mortality secondary to liver disease is greatly increased compared to those infected with HBV or HIV alone. Mortality remains elevated even after treating both the HIV and HBV virus. The HBV Immunology Lab investigates the mechanism of how HIV can accelerate liver disease in patients co-infected with HBV. They hypothesise that this occurs by combined effects of HIV and HBV on inflammation in the liver. These studies could potentially lead to new treatments for liver disease. In addition they have a long-standing interest in developing novel assays to characterise the immune response to other important HIV co-infections, including cytomegalovirus (CMV) and Cryptococcus.
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HIV-related immune reconstitution and immune activation
Following antiretroviral therapy, CD4+ T-cells recover but often don’t recover to normal levels and immune activation can persist. Although patients are no longer at risk of AIDS associated illnesses, they are at increased risk of other diseases including cardiovascular disease, neurological disease and malignancy. The Lewin-Cameron lab is interested in determining novel host factors that influence immune reconstitution including genetic factors.
Lab Team
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Dr Jasminka SterjovskiResearch Manager
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Dr Jennifer AudsleyPost-doctoral Research Fellow
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Dr Jenny AndersonPost-doctoral Research Fellow
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Dr Vanessa EvansPost-doctoral Research Fellow
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Dr Jori SymonsPost-doctoral Research Fellow
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Dr Jennifer ZerbartoPost-doctoral Research Fellow
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Ajantha RhodesLab Manager
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Surekha TennakoonResearch Officer
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Ashanti DantanarayanaResearch Assistant
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Dr Kasha SinghPhD student
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Dr Matthew PitmanPhD student
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Youry KimPhD student
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Zuwena RichardsonPhD student
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Haoming LiuPhD Student
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Rachel PascoePhD Student
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Jared SternPhD Student
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Wei ZhaoResearch Fellow
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Socheata CheaClinical Research Support and Systems Administrator
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Carolin TumpachResearch Support Officer
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Bedoui Group
The Bedoui Lab uses models of viral and bacterial infection to study how the innate and the adaptive immune system interact. Key foci are to understand how innate cells sense pathogens and how this information is integrated into protective adaptive T cell responses.
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Brooks Group
Research in Andrew’s laboratory is largely centred on how natural killer cells and T cells impact the outcomes of viral infection, cancer and transplantation.
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Doherty Group
Peter has been working consistently in the areas of T cell and viral immunology since the early 1970’s. His work focuses on cellular and molecular aspects of virus-specific CD8+ T cells. Peter’s studies provide insights into acquisition of effector functions by CD8+ T cells, immunodominance, persistence of memory CD8+ T cells and their subsequent recall.
Other work areas include:Influenza
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Dr Alexandra Corbett Sub-Group
Alex co-supervises PhD students Criselle D’Souza, Huimeng Wang and Freya Harewood, and works with other members of the McCluskey lab on various aspects of MAIT biology. Alex has established key collaborations with a number of clinicians and other researchers to analyse MAIT cells in human disease.
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Fabienne Mackay Group
Fabienne’s group focuses on autoimmunity and has recently initiated an important funded research program on restoring immunity in cancer.
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Gebhardt Group
Thomas’ group studies basic and translational aspects of immune responses in peripheral tissues. Their overall goal is to develop future vaccines and immunomodulatory therapies that target peripheral T cells for improved clinical outcomes in infection, inflammation and cancer.
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Heath Group
Bill’s group’s cellular immunology research currently focuses on understanding killer T cell function with particular reference to improved vaccination strategies and understanding malarial disease.
Other work areas include:Malaria
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Kallies Group
The Kallies group studies the molecular control of lymphocyte differentiation in response to antigen with a particular focus on T cells residing in non-lymphoid tissues, including tumors.
Other work areas include:Viral Infectious Diseases
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Kedzierska Group
Katherine’s team researches the immunity to viral infections, especially the newly emerged influenza viruses. Her work spans basic research – from mouse experiments to human immunity, through to clinical settings, with a particular focus on understanding universal CD8+ T cell immunity to influenza viruses. Her studies aim to identify key correlates of severe and fatal influenza disease in high-risk groups including children, the elderly and Indigenous Australians.
Other work areas include:Influenza
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Kent Group
Stephen’s group studies immunity to HIV and influenza. They are analysing a variety of vaccine strategies, including nanoparticle-based vaccines. They are studying a series of immune responses to gain better insights into protective immunity to important viral pathogens.
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Laura Mackay Group
Laura’s group aims to understand how the immune system responds to infection. Research is focused on uncovering the signals that guide lymphocyte development in peripheral tissues, with an aim to discover new therapies to boost protective immunity.
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Mantamadiotis Group
The Mantamadiotis group studies basic and translational aspects of molecular and cellular responses in brain cancer. Their overall goal is to develop future therapies, including immunomodulatory therapies that target the tumour cells and tumour infiltrating lymphocytes for improved clinical outcomes in cancer.
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McCluskey Group
MAIT cells respond to precursors of riboflavin, allowing the immune system to detect microbial invaders. The McCluskey group aims to understand their role in infection/inflammatory conditions and is tackling this question using mouse models, human tissue analysis and structural biology.
If you are interested to collaborate with us, please, feel free to get in touch. Please note that the human and mouse MR1 tetramers developed in our laboratory can now be ordered through the NIH tetramer core facility.
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Mueller Group
Research in Scott’s group is focused on examining immune responses to both acute and chronic viral infections. A particular emphasis on T cell responses and interactions with antigen presenting cells and lymphoid tissue stromal cells is currently driving the group, as well as an interest in neuro-immune interactions.
Other work areas include:Malaria
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Purcell Lab
Professor Damian Purcell’s research group investigates the HIV-1 and HTLV-1 human retroviruses that cause AIDS and leukaemia/inflammatory pathogenesis respectively. The lab studies their genetic structure and gene expression with a focus on defining the mechanisms that control viral persistence and pathogenesis. The molecular interplay of viral and host factors during viral infection and the innate and adaptive immune responses to viral infection are examined. These molecular insights are used to develop new antiviral and curative therapeutics, preventive prophylactic vaccines and passive antibody microbicides and therapeutics. Some of these patented discoveries have been commercialised and we are assisting with clinical trials.
Other work areas include:Host Pathogens Interactions , Viral Infectious Diseases, HIV
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Reading Group
Patrick’s group investigates how the body first detects and responds to respiratory viruses. They investigate viral attachment factors, cellular receptors and entry pathways, virus-induced activation of host genes and the mechanisms by which intracellular host proteins can block virus replication.
Other work areas include:Influenza
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Robins-Browne Group
Research in Roy’s laboratory is partly focused on how E. coli causes diarrhoea, with the aims of identifying better ways to diagnose, treat and prevent these infections. Another theme is the development of new types of antibacterial agents.
Other work areas include:Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infections, Enteric infections
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Villadangos Group
Jose’s group combines immunology, biochemistry and cell biology to study how the adaptive immune system detects pathogens and cancer, a process called Antigen Presentation. Their research is applicable to vaccine development, treatment of critically ill patients and the fight against cancer.
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Wakim Group
Linda’s group’s main research focus is understating the mechanism of action and regulation of expression of antiviral proteins. Linda’s group also aims to characterise CD8 T cell responses within the lung following virus infection.
Other work areas include:Influenza
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