- About
- Strategic Plan
- Structure
- Governance
- Scientific divisions
- ACRF Cancer Biology and Stem Cells
- ACRF Chemical Biology
- Advanced Technology and Biology
- Bioinformatics
- Blood Cells and Blood Cancer
- Clinical Translation
- Epigenetics and Development
- Immunology
- Infectious Diseases and Immune Defence
- Inflammation
- Personalised Oncology
- Population Health and Immunity
- Structural Biology
- Ubiquitin Signalling
- Laboratory operations
- Funding
- Annual reports
- Human research ethics
- Scientific integrity
- Institute life
- Career opportunities
- Business Development
- Partnering opportunities
- A complete cure for HBV
- A stable efficacious Toxoplasma vaccine
- Activating SMCHD1 to treat FSHD
- Fut8 Sugar coating immuno oncology
- Improving vision outcomes in retinal detachment
- Intercepting inflammation with RIPK2 inhibitors
- Novel inhibitors for the treatment of lupus
- Novel malaria vaccine
- Novel therapy for drug-resistant cancers
- Precision epigenetics silencing SMCHD1 to treat Prader Willi Syndrome
- Rethinking CD52 a therapy for autoimmune disease
- Selective JAK inhibition: mimicking SOCS activity
- Targeting minor class splicing
- Treating Epstein-Barr virus associated malignancies
- Royalties distribution
- Start-up companies
- Partnering opportunities
- Collaborators
- Publications repository
- Awards
- Discoveries
- Centenary 2015
- History
- Contact us
- Research
- Diseases
- Cancer
- Development and ageing
- Immune health and infection
- Research fields
- Research technologies
- People
- Anne-Laure Puaux
- Associate Professor Aaron Jex
- Associate Professor Alyssa Barry
- Associate Professor Andrew Webb
- Associate Professor Anne Voss
- Associate Professor Chris Tonkin
- Associate Professor Daniel Gray
- Associate Professor Edwin Hawkins
- Associate Professor Ethan Goddard-Borger
- Associate Professor Grant Dewson
- Associate Professor Isabelle Lucet
- Associate Professor James Murphy
- Associate Professor Jeanne Tie
- Associate Professor Jeff Babon
- Associate Professor Joan Heath
- Associate Professor Justin Boddey
- Associate Professor Marco Herold Marco Herold
- Associate Professor Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat
- Associate Professor Marnie Blewitt
- Associate Professor Matthew Ritchie
- Associate Professor Melissa Davis
- Associate Professor Oliver Sieber
- Associate Professor Peter Czabotar
- Associate Professor Rachel Wong
- Associate Professor Ruth Kluck
- Associate Professor Sandra Nicholson
- Associate Professor Seth Masters
- Associate Professor Sumitra Ananda
- Associate Professor Tim Thomas
- Associate Professor Wai-Hong Tham
- Associate Professor Wei Shi
- Catherine Parker
- Dr Anna Coussens
- Dr Ashley Ng
- Dr Ben Tran
- Dr Bernhard Lechtenberg
- Dr Bob Anderson
- Dr Brad Sleebs
- Dr Diana Hansen
- Dr Drew Berry
- Dr Emma Josefsson
- Dr Gemma Kelly
- Dr Gwo Yaw Ho
- Dr Hui-Li Wong
- Dr Hélène Jousset Sabroux
- Dr Ian Majewski
- Dr Ian Street
- Dr Jacqui Gulbis
- Dr James Vince
- Dr Joanna Groom
- Dr John Wentworth
- Dr Kate Sutherland
- Dr Kelly Rogers
- Dr Leanne Robinson
- Dr Leigh Coultas
- Dr Lucy Gately
- Dr Margaret Lee
- Dr Mary Ann Anderson
- Dr Maryam Rashidi
- Dr Matthew Call
- Dr Melissa Call
- Dr Misty Jenkins
- Dr Philippe Bouillet
- Dr Rebecca Feltham
- Dr Rhys Allan
- Dr Samir Taoudi
- Dr Sant-Rayn Pasricha
- Dr Shalin Naik
- Dr Sheau Wen Lok
- Dr Simon Chatfield
- Dr Stephen Wilcox
- Dr Tracy Putoczki
- Guillaume Lessene
- Helene Martin
- Keely Bumsted O'Brien
- Mr Joel Chibert
- Mr Simon Monard
- Mr Steve Droste
- Ms Carolyn MacDonald
- Ms Samantha Ludolf
- Professor Alan Cowman
- Professor Andreas Strasser
- Professor Andrew Lew
- Professor Andrew Roberts
- Professor Clare Scott
- Professor David Huang
- Professor David Komander
- Professor David Vaux
- Professor Doug Hilton
- Professor Gabrielle Belz
- Professor Geoff Lindeman
- Professor Gordon Smyth
- Professor Ian Wicks
- Professor Ivo Mueller
- Professor Jane Visvader
- Professor Jason Tye-Din
- Professor Jerry Adams
- Professor John Silke
- Professor Ken Shortman
- Professor Leonard C Harrison
- Professor Lynn Corcoran
- Professor Marc Pellegrini
- Professor Melanie Bahlo
- Professor Mike Lawrence
- Professor Nicos Nicola
- Professor Peter Colman
- Professor Peter Gibbs
- Professor Phil Hodgkin
- Professor Stephen Nutt
- Professor Suzanne Cory
- Professor Terry Speed
- Professor Tony Burgess
- Professor Tony Papenfuss
- Professor Warren Alexander
- Diseases
- Education
- PhD
- Honours
- Masters
- Undergraduate
- Student research projects
- 6 cysteine proteins key mediators between malaria parasites and human host
- A balancing act of immunity: autoimmunity versus malignancies
- Activating https://www.wehi.edu.au/node/add/individual-student-research-page#Parkin to treat Parkinson’s disease
- Analysing single cell technologies to understand breast cancer
- Bioinformatics methods for detecting and making sense of somatic genomic rearrangements
- Characterising new regulators in inflammatory signalling pathways
- Computational melanoma genomics
- Control of human lymphocyte cell expansion in complex immune diseases
- Deciphering biophysical changes in red blood cell membrane during malaria parasite infection
- Deciphering the signalling functions of pseudokinases
- Deep profiling of blood cancers during targeted therapy
- Determining the mechanism of type I cytokine receptor triggering
- Differential expression analysis of RNA-seq using multivariate variance modelling
- Discovering new genetic causes of primary antibody deficiencies
- Discovery of novel drug combinations for the treatment of bowel cancer
- Drug targets and compounds that block growth of malaria parasites
- Effects of nutrition on immunity and infection in Asia and Africa
- Enabling deubiquitinase drug discovery
- Epigenetic drivers of immune cell function
- Epigenetic regulation of systemic iron homeostasis
- Exploiting cell death pathways in regulatory T cells for cancer immunotherapy
- Fatal attraction: how apoptotic pore assembly is governed during mitochondrial cell death
- Genomic instability and the immune microenvironment in lung cancer
- How do T lymphocytes decide their fate?
- How the epigenetic regulator SMCHD1 works and how to target it to treat disease
- Human lung protective immunity to tuberculosis: host-environment systems biology
- Human monoclonal antibodies against malaria infection
- Identifying novel treatment options for ovarian carcinosarcoma
- Inflammasome activation in autoinflammatory disease
- Investigating mechanisms of cell death and survival using zebrafish
- Investigating microbial natural products with anti-protozoal activity
- Investigating the role of mutant p53 in cancer
- Investigating the role of platelets in motor neuron disease
- Mapping DNA repair networks in cancer
- Molecular mechanisms controlling embryonic lung progenitor cells
- Nanobodies against malaria
- Neutrophil heterogeneity in inflammation
- New approaches to treat cancer and inflammatory disease using the ubiquitin system
- Next generation CRISPR screens using iPSC
- Novel cell death and inflammatory modulators in lupus
- Programming T cells to defend against infections
- Restraining cytokine-receptor signalling in myeloproliferative neoplasms
- Screening for regulators of jumping genes
- Statistical analysis of genome-wide chromatin organisation using Hi-C
- Statistical analysis of trapped-ion-mobility time-of-flight mass spectrometry proteomics data
- Structure and function of E3 ubiquitin ligases
- Target identification of potent antimalarial agents
- The mitochondrial TOM complex in neurodegenerative disease
- The molecular mechanisms underlying Kir4.1 activity in gliomas
- The role of differential splicing in the genesis of breast cancer
- Uncovering the roles of long non-coding RNAs in human bowel cancer
- Understanding malaria infection dynamics
- Understanding the function of the E3 ligase Parkin in Parkinson’s disease
- Understanding the molecular basis of chromosome instability in gastric cancer
- Utilising pre-clinical models to discover novel therapies for tuberculosis
- School resources
- Frequently asked questions
- Student profiles
- Student achievements
- Student association
- News
- Donate
- Online donation
- Ways to support
- Support outcomes
- Supporter stories
- Rotarians against breast cancer
- A partnership to improve treatments for cancer patients
- 20 years of cancer research support from the Helpman family
- A generous gift from a cancer survivor
- A gift to support excellence in Australian medical research
- An enduring friendship
- Anonymous donor helps bridge the 'valley of death'
- Renewed support for HIV eradication project
- Searching for solutions to muscular dystrophy
- Supporting research into better treatments for colon cancer
- Taking a single cell focus with the DROP-seq
- WEHI.TV
Researchers uncover 'local heroes' of immune system
22 April 2016
control a molecular program to protect the body.
Melbourne researchers have uncovered genes responsible for the way the body fights infection at the point of ‘invasion’ – whether it's the skin, liver, lungs or the gut.
Research led by Dr Axel Kallies and Dr Klaas van Gisbergen at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and Dr Laura Mackay from the University of Melbourne at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity has identified the genes Hobit and Blimp1 and found that they control a universal molecular program responsible for placing immune cells at the 'front lines' of the body to fight infection and cancer.
The presence of these organ-residing cells, which differ strikingly from their counterparts circulating in the blood stream, is key to local protection against viruses and bacteria.
Walter and Eliza Hall Institute’s Dr Kallies said the human body was fighting disease-causing pathogens every minute of its life. Dr Kallies said identifying how immune cells remain in the part of the body where they are needed most was critical to developing better ways to protect us from infections such as malaria or HIV.
“Discovering these 'local heroes' and knowing how the localised immune response is established allows us to find ways to ensure the required cells are positioned where they are needed most,” Dr Kallies said.
“This research will help us understand how immune cells adapt, survive and respond within the organs they protect. This is critical to rid the body of pathogens even before they are established and may also have implications for understanding how the spread of cancer could be prevented.”
The Doherty Institute’s Dr Laura Mackay, who is also an associate investigator with the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging, said the factors that control the ‘tissue-residency’ of immune cells – their ability to locally reside in different organs of the body – was previously unknown.
“These results have major implications for developing strategies to induce immune cells in tissues that protect against infectious diseases,” Dr Mackay said.
“It’s a crucial discovery for future vaccine strategies – Hobit and Blimp1 would be key to placing immune cells in the tissues, which we know are really important for protection.”
The findings have just been published in the journal Science.
This research was supported by the Victorian State Government Operational Infrastructure Support and the Australian Government National Health and Medical Research Council Independent Research Institute Infrastructure Support Scheme.
Further information:
Ebru Yaman
Media and Publications Manager
M: 0428 034 089
E: ebru.yaman@wehi.edu.au
Super Content:
Our research into how antibody producing cells become long-lived may provide insights into how certain diseases arise.
ABC Radio interview: why the body reacts the way it does when under stress from infection
Check out our YouTube channel: latest WEHI.TV animations, videos of our public lectures, news releases and staff profiles.
Want to hear about our latest discoveries? Subscribe to our supporter newsletter, Illuminate.