Pattern Recognition Receptors and Inflammation

ciiid-picA/Prof Mansell’s group uses a range of cellular and molecular biology methods, live cell microscopy, preclinical models and clinical studies to provide a molecular understanding of innate immunity.

Within the innate immune system, there are mechanisms to recognise and respond to both foreign and self-danger signals. These signals may be bacterial or viral infections or dead/ stressed cells in the host. These responses form the basis of our immune system.

Toll-like receptors (TLRs) constitute a group of three pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) superfamilies, NOD-like receptors (NLRs) and RIG-I-like receptors (RLRs). TLRs are implicated not only in infectious diseases, but also a broad range of chronic inflammatory and autoimmune diseases such as atherosclerosis, asthma, lupus, diabetes, arthritis and cancer.

A/Prof Mansell and his team are interested in three main research themes related to the TLR superfamily of receptors.

Research Group