"New mechanisms of inflammasome activation and autoinflammatory disease", Associate Professor Seth Masters, 3 August

This week's Hudson seminar will be held Thursday 3 August 12pm-1pm at Seminar Rooms 1 & 2, Level 2, TRF Building. 

The speaker will be Associate Professor Seth Masters, Head of the Inflammasomes and Autoinflammatory Disease Laboratory at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.

A light lunch and refreshments will follow this presentation.

The Masters laboratory studies the innate immune system, which can be activated to cause autoinflammatory disease. A particular focus in this area has been the inflammasome protein complex which generates the cytokine IL-1b. Specifically, A/Prof Masters and colleagues discovered mutations that activate the Pyrin inflammasome in a dominantly inherited skin disease they called PAAND, which lead to successful therapy by blocking IL-1b. The NLRP1 inflammasome has also been an active area of research, with links to IBD, cancer, obesity and metabolic syndrome. Previous work of note includes activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome by IAPP amyloid, and discovery of the autoinflammatory disease DIRA, due to mutations in IL-1Ra.

A/Prof Seth Masters is head of the Inflammasomes and Autoinflammatory Disease laboratory at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. He holds joint appointments at Glaxosmithkline (UK) and Guangzhou Institute of Pediatrics (China), and is appointed as a fellow of the Viertel Foundation, Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the NHMRC

Please contact Dr Jason Cain (jason.cain@hudson.org.au) if you would like to meet with Seth after the seminar.