Our lab focus spans cytokine signalling and innate immunity.
I am interested in how the body initiates an innate immune response to infectious pathogens. In particular, I seek to understand what factors lead to a ‘helpful’ infection-fighting inflammatory response versus damaging disease-causing inflammation.
Cytokines are small proteins that play a key role in controlling inflammation, the normal biological response to wounding, or infection. Our research focuses on understanding the signals that occur inside cells exposed to cytokines, instructing them to respond appropriately to infection. We are generating three-dimensional structures of the protein complexes critical in communicating inflammatory signals.
This information is underpinning the development of agents that can control the immune response. Our ultimate aim is to advance novel treatments for the severe inflammatory conditions.
