Understanding Universal Immunity To Influenza Viruses
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$687,975.00
Summary
A/Prof Kedzierska’s work combines cutting-edge basic research with unique clinical studies to define how to generate protective immunity against the pandemic and newly emerged influenza viruses. This research will identify key factors that drive the severe and fatal influenza disease in high-risk groups, including the young, elderly, pregnant women and Indigenous Austraians. Findings on the optimal human immunity to influenza viruses will be applicable to other infectious diseases and cancers.
Inflammasome Function In Protection Against Infectious Disease And Autoimmunity
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$631,010.00
Summary
Inflammation, characterised by swelling, heat, pain and redness, is a normal response to injury and infection. Many human diseases such as gout, athersclerosis, diabetes and Alzheimer’s disease involve some inflammation, mediated through a common pathway termed the inflammasome. This project will investigate the proteins involved in this pathway and how they interact in their normal role of combatting infections, as well as a possible defect in this pathway in autoimmune patients.
Delineating Immune Circuits For Innate And Adaptive Immune Protection
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$876,005.00
Summary
The immune system provides the essential frame-work to protect us against infection, disease and to heal tissues after trauma. This is achieved by a complex but elegant network of different types of white blood cells. Understanding the molecular wiring of these cells will provides fundamental insights to how the body fights pathogen infections and cancer and lays the foundation to therapeutic approaches to vaccination and disease treatments.
There are two arms to the immune system, one that learns and adapts, which can cause autoimmune disease, and another that is immediate and innate, and can cause autoinflammatory disease. This proposal continues our work in the characterization of rare genetic autoinflammatory disesaes and extrapolates these studies to more common chronic inflammatory diseases. This stands to improve current diagnosis and treatment, and elucidate future drug targets that could be targeted clinically.
I am a biochemist focussed on understanding how the structures of proteins determine their functions. I intend to apply this understanding to medically relevant questions by working collaboratively and using a range of complementary structural, computational and cell biology techniques. In particular, I will focus on proteins involved in infection and immunity, to understand how they work, and contribute to the development of drugs and vaccines.
Structural Biology And Therapeutic Targeting Of Proteins Involved In Infection And Immunity
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$753,300.00
Summary
Structural biology plays an essential role in uncovering how proteins function at the molecular level, and further facilitates strategies to develop therapeutics targeting the diseases these proteins are involved in. In the proposed work, I will focus on bacterial virulence factors, to develop new antibiotics and vaccination strategies, and proteins involved in innate immunity pathways, to develop therapeutics against a number of associated disorders including chronic inflammatory diseases.
Protein-RNA Interactions In Antiviral Cellular Defence And Gene Regulation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$705,501.00
Summary
Protein-RNA interactions play key roles in antiviral cellular defence and inflammation. Investigation of these molecular interactions will lead to new therapeutic targets and means of combating virus-related disease and inflammatory disorders.
Dissecting The Role Of NOD-like Receptors (NLRs) In Helicobacter Pylori Disease
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$638,517.00
Summary
Half of the world's 6.5 billion people harbour the bacterium Helicobacter pylori in their stomachs. Approximately 1% of these infections develop into gastric cancer, representing the second leading cause of cancer-related death world-wide. This research project will investigate the role of a family of host defence proteins as mediators of inflammatory and cell survival responses which contribute to the development of gastric cancer disease.
Immunoregulation, Innate And Adaptive Immunity, Viral Immunology, Ocular Immunology, Immunotherapy
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$880,454.00
Summary
The focus on our research is to understand how the immune system responds to viral challenges and how viruses attempt to counteract immune responses. We focus on systemic disease, as well as disease that involve the eye. Understanding how immune responses are regulated will allows us to develop improved therapies