Immunology and Infection

Summary

The Immunology and Infection Laboratory studies the host immune response during malaria and leishmaniasis, and aims to distinguish anti-parasitic host immune responses that control disease from those that cause disease.

Conditions researched

• Malaria
• Visceral leishmaniasis (VL)

Current research

• Defining the roles of T cells during malaria to try and devise strategies to modulate the activities of these cells to improve outcomes in malaria patients
• Identify immune mechanisms that are activated in the spleen and liver during visceral leishmaniasis, in order to develop an effective vaccine and therapies

Staff

Group Leader: Dr Christian R. Engwerda

Postdoctoral Research Officers: Dr Fiona H. Amante, Dr Meru Sheel

Research Assistants: Fabian de Labastida Rivera, Shannon E. Best, Kylie James.

PhD students: Patrick Bunn, Marcela Montesdeoca, Priyadarshini Faleiro.

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the support of the following funding agencies:

• The National Health and Medical Research Council
  
• Australian Centre for Vaccine Development
• The Wellcome Trust

Collaborators

Professor Paul Kaye, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK.

Professor Carl Ware, La Jolla Institute for Allergy and Immunology, USA.

Professor Shyam Sundar, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi, India.

Professor Nicholas M. Anstey, Menzies School of Health Research, Darwin, Australia.

Professor William R. Heath, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne, Australia.