-

About

A functional immune system requires the coordinated activity of thousands of individual genes. We study transcription factors, regulatory proteins that act in the cell’s nucleus to control gene expression.

I completed my PhD at the University of Vienna Austria, where I identified a key role played by Pax5 in B cells. Following a post-doc at Cambridge University, I established a research program at WEHI focusing on immune cell differentiation. I am a Professor at the University of Melbourne and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

Throughout my career I has been intrigued the regulatory logic used by immune cells in making decisions of cell fate and particularly how transcription factors program the response. We have deciphered how factors such as BLIMP1, PU.1 and IRFs control immune cell differentiation.

We currently focus on the programming of B-cell and plasma cell diversity, as well as efforts to develop new therapies for B-cell diseases including multiple myeloma. My lab is responsible for the B-cell work in the international ImmGen Consortium.

A parallel area of interest are the dendritic cell lineages. We aim to exploit our knowledge in this area to develop a new immunotherapy approach to treat cancer.

Publications

Selected publications from Prof Stephen Nutt

Zhang S, Coughlan HD, Ashayeripanah M, Seizova S, Kueh AJ, Brown DV, Cao W, Jacquelot N, D’Amico A, Lew AM, Zhan Y, Tonkin CJ, Villadangos JA, Smyth GK, Chopin M, Nutt SL. Type 1 conventional dendritic cell fate and function are controlled by DC-SCRIPT. Sci Immunol (2021) 6(58): eabf4432 PMID: 33811060.

Zhan Y, Zhang Y, Zhang S, Coughlan H, Baldoni PL, Jacquelot N, Cao WHJ, Preston S, Louis C, Rautela J, Pellegrini M, Wicks IP, Alexander WS, Harrison LC, Lew AM, Smyth GK, Nutt SL, Chopin M. Differential requirement for the Polycomb repressor complex 2 in dendritic cell and tissue-resident myeloid cell homeostasis. Sci Immunol (2021) 6(63): eabf7268 PMID: 34533976.

Fedele PL, Liao Y, Gong JN, Yao Y, van Delft MF, Low MSY, Tai L, Herold MJ, Jackson JT, Teh CE, Tan T, O’Reilly LA, Tellier J, Grigoriadis G, Huang DCS, Shi W, Nutt SL, Willis SN. The transcription factor IRF4 represses proapoptotic BMF and BIM to licence multiple myeloma survival. Leukemia (2021) 35(7):2114-2118 PMID: 33149265.

Nutt SL, Chopin M. Transcriptional Networks Driving Dendritic Cell Differentiation and Function. Immunity (2020) 52(6):942-956 PMID: 32553180.

Yoshida H, Lareau CA, Ramirez RN, Rose SA, Maier B, Wroblewska A, Desland F, Chudnovskiy A, Mortha A, Dominguez C, Tellier J, Kim E, Dwyer D, Shinton S, Nabekura T, Qi Y, Yu B, Robinette M, Kim KW, Wagers A, Rhoads A, Nutt SL, Brown BD, Mostafavi S, Buenrostro JD, Benoist C, Immunological Genome P. The cis-Regulatory Atlas of the Mouse Immune System. Cell (2019) 176(4):897-912 e820 PMID: 30686579.

Chopin M, Lun AT, Zhan Y, Schreuder J, Coughlan H, D’Amico A, Mielke LA, Almeida FF, Kueh AJ, Dickins RA, Belz GT, Naik SH, Lew AM, Bouillet P, Herold MJ, Smyth GK, Corcoran LM, Nutt SL. Transcription Factor PU.1 Promotes Conventional Dendritic Cell Identity and Function via Induction of Transcriptional Regulator DC-SCRIPT. Immunity (2019) 50(1):77-90 e75 PMID: 30611612.

Johanson TM, Lun ATL, Coughlan HD, Tan T, Smyth GK, Nutt SL, Allan RS. Transcription-factor-mediated supervision of global genome architecture maintains B cell identity. Nat Immunol (2018) 19(11):1257-1264 PMID: 30323344.

Fedele PL, Willis SN, Liao Y, Low MS, Rautela J, Segal DH, Gong JN, Huntington ND, Shi W, Huang DCS, Grigoriadis G, Tellier J, Nutt SL. IMiDs prime myeloma cells for daratumumab-mediated cytotoxicity through loss of Ikaros and Aiolos. Blood (2018) 132(20):2166-2178 PMID: 30228232.

Dias S, D’Amico A, Cretney E, Liao Y, Tellier J, Bruggeman C, Almeida FF, Leahy J, Belz GT, Smyth GK, Shi W, Nutt SL. Effector Regulatory T Cell Differentiation and Immune Homeostasis Depend on the Transcription Factor Myb. Immunity (2017) 46(1):78-91 PMID: 28099866.

Tellier J, Shi W, Minnich M, Liao Y, Crawford S, Smyth GK, Kallies A, Busslinger M, Nutt SL. Blimp-1 controls plasma cell function through the regulation of immunoglobulin secretion and the unfolded protein response. Nat Immunol (2016) 17(3):323-330 PMID: 26779600.

Lab research projects

Interested in supporting our research?

Your support will help WEHI’s researchers make discoveries and find treatments to ensure healthier, longer lives for you and your loved ones.

Contact our friendly team to find out how you can help.