Infection & Immunity

The Schofield Laboratory

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Research Overview | Research Divisions | Online Resources | Collaborative Research

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Cancer & Haematology | Molecular Genetics of Cancer | Immunology | Infection & Immunity
Autoimmunity & Transplantion | Genetics & Bioinformatics | Structural Biology

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Dr. Louis Schofield heads the Malaria Immunology program at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. He is an International Research Scholar of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (www.hhmi.org), and an original founder of Ancora Pharmaceuticals Inc. (www.ancorapharma.com), a biotech start-up based in Boston, Massachussetts, with which the lab. has excellent collaborative links. Louis is responsible for setting the broad research directions of the group. However, all members of the lab are encouraged to propose and develop new ideas.

Although numbers vary with time, the group typical comprises 1-2 Honours students,1-2 PhD students, 4-5 post doctoral fellows, 2-3 research assistants and an animal technician. High quality Institute-wide services are provided for support wash-up and preparation, histology, animal facilities, hybridoma production, sequencing, tissue and microbial culture media, FACS facility, confocal microscopy, graphics, computing, bioinformatics, isotopes and radiolabeling. The Institute runs a Joint Protein Structure laboratory. We also have access to GC/MS, mass spectrometry, and NMR. The Institute has a commercial "incubator" facility located at Bundoora and our lab. runs a government-funded vaccine development project at that site.

Research interests: The Malaria Immunology program includes the following broad research areas: (i) development of 'anti-toxic' malaria vaccines; (ii) bioactivity, signal transduction and mechanism of action of GPIs; (iii) identity of the GPI toxin receptor: (iv) role of CD1-restricted NKT cells in immune responses to malaria and Leishmania; (iv) role of the murine Natural Killer Complex and syntenic regions in humans in susceptibility/resistance to malaria and Leishmania; (v) regulation of T cell function in protozoal infections;(vi) microarray analysis of the host transcriptional response to protozoa; (vii) genetic and immunological determinants of malarial pathogenesis in human populations; (viii) clinical and parasitological immunity to malaria in humans. Highlighted reviews of two different aspects of our work have appeared recently in Nature Reviews Immunology (2003) 3:356, and Nature (2003) 423:580-582.

We have good collaborations within the Institute and extramurally with a range of national and international scientists, institutions and facilities. We have significant linkages to the Papua New Guinea Institute of Medical Research and are developing studies into the causes and determinants of severe malarial disease including anaemia in human populations.

Jobs, Studentships, Funding:
Persons interested in job opportunities in the research areas specified are invited to send resumes/CVs to Dr. Louis Schofield (schofield@wehi.edu.au).

Honours, PhD studentships. The lab has a track-record in supporting student research projects and students with commitment to the field are encouraged to apply. Enrolment is with WEHI as a department of the University of Melbourne, so application need to be approved by the School of Graduate Studies there as well as by the Director of WEHI. WEHI PhD students need to have their own financial support, typically a Melbourne Research Scholarship, an Australian Postgraduate Award or an International Postgraduate Research Scholarship. For more information on how you should prepare for an application to study at the WEHI, see the WEHI Information for Prospective Students. For more information about the scholarships which are available and for application forms, see the University of Melbourne Postgraduate Student Information page.

We obtain funding from multiple sources including the World Health Organization, the Human Frontiers of Science Program, The Wellcome Trust, the NH&MRC, the US National Institutes of Health and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. Many post-docs and students procure independent salary support from competitive fellowship or scholarship sources.

Current Staff Members
In addition to Dr. Schofield, current members of the lab are:
1) Dr. Diana Hansen, Post-doctoral Fellow: CD1d-restricted NKT cells in malaria and genetics of malarial susceptibility/resistance.
2) Dr. Thomas Nebl, Howard Florey Post-doctoral Fellow: GPI receptors and lipid rafts.
3) Dr. Adrienne Sexton, Post-doctoral Fellow: Microarray analysis of the host response to malaria
4) Dr. Mike deVeer, Howard Florey Post-doctoral Fellow: Toll-receptors in malaria and Leishmania.
5) Dr. Nikki Pettigrew, Post doctoral Fellow: GPI receptors.
6) Ms. Krystal Evans, Dora Lush PhD student: GPI biochemistry, anti-GPI immune responses.
7) Ms. Marta Dombrain, Research assistant, converting to do her PhD: malarial acidosis
8) Mr. Nick Gardner, Research assistant: CD1d-restricted NKT cells.
9) Ms. Mary-Anne Siomos Research assistant, in charge of the day to day affairs of the lab and maintenance of cell and parasite cultures, equipment and reagent stocks.
10) Ms. Lynn Buckingham is a member of the Schofield lab and coordinates and supervising all aspects of work with animals.
11) Mr. Allen Eghrari, visiting Howard Hughes undergraduate scholar from the USA.
12) Ms. Catherine Nie, UROP student, University of Melbourne.
13) Mr. John Manzie, Research assistant, protein expression.

Alumni:
Some past members of the lab/visiting colleagues have been:
1993-1997 Dr. Souvenir Tachado, currently Harvard Medical School.
1994-1995 Dr. Ayub Lulat, currently working in IVF technology, Toronto Canada.
1995 Ms. Beate Feldhaber, University of Hamburg.
1996 Dr. Peter Gerold, Phillips University, Marburg Germany.
1996 Ms. Natacha Hymans, Dipl. Th. (B.Sc. (Hons) University of Marburg.
1997 Dr. Alexander Mathis, University of Zurich, Switzerland.
1997 Mr. Toby Symes B.Med.Sci. University of Melbourne.
1997-1998 Dr. Aline Piani , Swiss National Science Foundation Fellow, industry.
1998-2000 Dr. Ramin Mazhari, Teheran.
1999-2000 Dr. Dedreia Tull, Department of Biochemistry, University of Melbourne.
2000 Dr. Christoph Huber, DeutscheForschungsgemeinschaft Fellow.
2000 Dr. Hosam Shams El-din, Phillips University, Marburg.
2001 Dr. Francoise Debierre-Grockiego, Phillips University, Marburg.
2002 Ms. Thao Ngyuen, UROP student.
2003 Ms. Joleen Rose, Dept. Microbiol/Immunol., University of Melbourne.

Recent publications:
Selected publications showing the interests of the lab:

Tachado SD, Gerold P, Schwarz R, McConville M, Schofield L. (1997) Signal
transduction in macrophages by glycosylphosphatidylinositols of Plasmodium,
Trypanosoma and Leishmania: Activation of protein tyrosine kinases and Protein kinase
C by inositolglycan and diacylglycerol moieties. Proc. Nat'l. Acad. Sci. USA. 94:4022-4027

Schofield L, McConville M, Hansen D, Campbell S, Fraser-Reid, B, Grusby M, Tachado
SD. (1999) CD1d-restricted IgG formation to GPI-anchored antigens mediated by NKT cells Science 283:225-229.

Berhe S, Schofield L, Schwarz RT, and Gerold, P. (1999) Conservation of structure among glycosylphosphatidylinositol toxins from different geographical isolates of Plasmodium falciparum. Mol. Biochem. Parasitol. 103:273-278.

Tachado SD, Mazhari-Tabrizi R, and Schofield L. (1999) Specificity in signal transduction among glycosylphosphatidylinositols of Plasmodium falciparum, Trypanosoma brucei, Trypanosoma cruzi and Leishmania sps. Parasite Immunology 21:609-17.

Delorenzi M, Sexton A, Shams-Eldin H, Schwarz RT, Speed T, and Schofield L. (2002) Genes for glycosylphosphatidylinositol toxin biosynthesis in Plasmodium falciparum Infection and Immunity 70:4510-4522. (A bioinformatics/database mining analysis of the genes encoding the GPI biosynthesis pathway).

Schofield, L, Hewitt , M, Evans K, Siomos, MA, and Seeberger P. Synthetic GPI as a candidate anti-toxic vaccine in a model of malaria. (2002) Nature 418:785-789.

Hansen D, Siomos M-A, Buckingham, L, Scalzo AA, and Schofield L. (2003) Regulation of murine malarial pathogenesis by CD1d-restricted NKT Cells and the Natural Killer Complex. Immunity 18:391-402.