Dr Jim Harris receives competitive Faculty Platform Access Grant

Dr Jim Harris

Congratulations Dr Jim Harris, postdoctoral scientist in the lupus and arthritis research group.  Jim has received a $6000 Monash Faculty Platform Access Grant for his project, Developing new tools to study IL-38.

Jim and his Hudson Institute research collaborators Associate Professor Marcel Nold and Dr Claudia Nold will use the grant to fund production of a new antibody against human IL-38, which has applications for a wide range of studies into this cytokine.

"IL-38 is a recently discovered member of the IL-1 family of cytokines, but appears to be anti-inflammatory," said Jim.

"Together with Marcel and Claudia, we have recently shown that it is also up-regulated in patients with lupus (manuscript in revision).

"There are few quality reagents available for studying IL-38, so new antibodies will give us a real advantage in uncovering the cell biology and clinical potential of IL-38," added Jim.