CID/CIIID Joint Seminar, Michael Gantier and Josh Ooi, 5 June

Tuesday 5 June, 12-1pm, TRF seminar room 1    

Modulation of host-pathogen interactions by nucleic acids

Dr Michael Gantier, ARC Future Fellow, Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases

Summary: DNA and RNA not only carry our genetic information, but are also critical regulators of immune responses to pathogens in all eukaryotes. This system universally relies on the capacity of the host to distinguish its own nucleic acids from those of the pathogens. My research program over the past decade has helped understand how mammalian cells selectively identify pathogenic RNA, and more recently, toxic DNA. These findings have had direct translational implications for several infectious and auto-immune diseases. Here I will present some of our recent efforts to better define the role of nucleic acids sensing during bacterial infection, and how the manipulation of these pathways can result in host protection.

Bio: The central aim of Dr Michael Gantier’s research is to define how nucleic acids (DNA and RNA) modulate immune responses. Following on his PhD studies on RNA interference in Dublin (Ireland), he joined the laboratory of Prof Bryan Williams in 2006, to define the interaction of small RNAs with the innate immune system. This led to the discovery of structural determinants of RNAs which underlie their capacity to activate, or inhibit immune responses, resulting in the rational design of molecules with potential therapeutic application in cancer and autoinflammatory diseases. More recently, his laboratory discovered how immune responses could be engaged in damaged cells, with implications in infection, immunity and cancer. In addition, Dr Gantier made important findings regarding how a class of endogenous small RNAs, known as microRNAs, persist in cells to regulate inflammation. This has led to the identification of microRNA sequence variations, which control microRNA stability and could be used as novel disease biomarkers.  In 2015, following the award of an ARC Future Fellowship and several NHMRC project grants, he was promoted to lead his own research group in the Hudson Institute of Medical Research.

How Human Leukocyte Antigen (HLA) polymorphisms affect the risk of developing autoimmune disease

Dr Joshua Ooi, Al and Val Rosenstrauss Fellow, Centre for Inflammatory Diseases

Summary: Inheritance of specific HLA genes can predispose to, or protect from, certain autoimmune diseases. It is, however, unclear how polymorphisms within these HLA genes confer disease risk. Using Goodpasture’s disease as a model autoimmune disease, Dr. Ooi, in collaboration with the Rossjohn and La Gruta laboratories at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute, showed that the HLA-autoepitope conformation dictates a pro- or anti- inflammatory autoimmune response. This work, published in Nature, is one of the first to provide a causal link between HLA polymorphisms and autoimmune disease. Based on his work in identifying the T cell epitopes in autoimmune vasculitic diseases, Dr. Ooi received the Al and Val Rosentrauss Fellowship and alongside mentor Prof. Richard Kitching received his first NHMRC Project grant this year to develop T cell targeted therapies for autoimmune diseases.