The immune system must be tightly regulated to make sure that it makes the right response to effectively fight off infection whilst avoiding inappropriate responses that cause damage such as in autoimmunity, inflammation or allergy. This project studies patients who have genetic defects that affect their immune systems and make them susceptible to infection and/or harmful immune responses. This will reveal some of the critical signals that maintain immune control.
Prof Carbone’s laboratory specialises in the study of immunity at the body surfaces. These surfaces include skin and mucosal tissues such as respiratory and gastrointestinal tract, all of which are the common points of entry for a variety of infectious agents. He has found that there exist cells at these peripheral sites that are separate from the immune components that one finds in the blood and, more importantly, that provide a profound level of protection during new infection. He now propose ....Prof Carbone’s laboratory specialises in the study of immunity at the body surfaces. These surfaces include skin and mucosal tissues such as respiratory and gastrointestinal tract, all of which are the common points of entry for a variety of infectious agents. He has found that there exist cells at these peripheral sites that are separate from the immune components that one finds in the blood and, more importantly, that provide a profound level of protection during new infection. He now propose to determine how best to induce this type of peripheral immune protection and how one can exploit these mechanisms for the purpose of infection control.Read moreRead less
Regulation Of Leukocyte Recruitment In Inflammation
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$686,656.00
Summary
In inflammatory diseases such as asthma, arthritis and atherosclerosis, white blood cells enter affected tissues causing inflammation and tissue destruction. This research will investigate the processes whereby white blood cells enter affected tissues, particularly how they exit the circulation, and migrate throughout tissues during inflammatory responses. An improved understanding of this process may identify new ways of interfering with the disease process in various inflammatory diseases.
Co-ordinating The Intrinsic And Extrinsic Arms Of Hematopoiesis
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$615,286.00
Summary
The cell types of the blood, such as red and white blood cells, are produced in the bone marrow from a rare stem cell. The stem cell uses a handfull of important master-regulatory genes that act in a hierarchy to promote the blood cell differentiation process. This research aims to understand how these master-regulators function in isolation and together in producing the white blood cells that are required for our immune response to microbes, vaccination and to prevent cancer.