Centre for Innate Immunity & Infectious diseases

Research at the Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases has led to ground-breaking discoveries in innate immunology and the microbiome that are changing our understanding and treatment of cancer, inflammatory and infectious diseases.

Professor Seth Masters, Centre Head of the Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases

Centre Head Professor Seth Masters

Overview

The Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases (CiiiD), led by Professor Seth Masters, houses the largest group of inflammation and immunity researchers in Australia. They are world leaders in studying the body’s innate, or first-line, immune response and how it and the microbiome trigger inflammation, leading to cancer, autoimmune conditions (lupus, inflammatory bowel disease, arthritis), lung (COPD, emphysema, silicosis) and infectious diseases (gastroenteritis, influenza, pneumonia).

The Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases goals are to

- Discover the steps and connections that turn inflammation on and off
- Develop new treatments for inflammatory diseases and cancer
- Identify markers that help diagnose and detect disease earlier.

Inflammation – the cause of disease

Scientists now know that uncontrolled destructive inflammation is the cause of more than 50 per cent of deaths worldwide and underpins hundreds of chronic diseases.

Inflammation is an essential immune response for survival. Although it protects against invaders (viruses, bacteria), it can also cause serious damage and even death. By finding the complex interconnections in inflammation, the Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases scientists are finding new ways to treat common and serious illnesses from birth to old age.

In the past five years, the Centre’s scientists have published more than 300 peer-reviewed publications, including works in prestigious journals, such as Nature, Nature Biotechnology, Nature Communications, Nature Microbiology, PNAS USA, PLoS Pathogens, EMBO Molecular Medicine, Gastroenterol, Gut, and Journal of Clinical Investigation. Their fundamental discoveries have led to numerous national and international industry collaborations.

They were co-founders of the Victorian Infection and Immunity Network (VIIN) and the Australian TLR research network (TLROZ), and are involved in several national and international collaborations, such as the Australian Inflammation Cent

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Diseases we research

Research groups

Group heads	Groups and research areas
Professor Philip Bardin	Respiratory and Lung COVID-19, Influenza
Dr Sophia Davidson	Neuroinflammation and Neurodegeneration
Professor Richard Ferrero	Gastrointestinal Infection and Inflammation Antimicrobial resistance, Gastroenteritis, Inflammation and cancer, Stomach cancer
Associate Professor Samuel Forster	Microbiota and Systems Biology Antimicrobial resistance, COVID-19, Gastroenteritis, Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Microbiome in health and disease
Associate Professor Michael Gantier	Nucleic Acids and Innate Immunity COVID-19, Inflammation and cancer, Influenza, Lupus
Professor Elizabeth Hartland AM	Innate Immune Responses to Infection Antimicrobial resistance, Gastroenteritis, Microbiome in health and disease, Pneumonia
Professor Paul Hertzog	Regulation of Interferon and Innate Signalling COVID-19, Inflammation and cancer, Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Influenza, Microbiome in health and disease, Lung cancer, Ovarian cancer, Endometriosis
Associate Professor Kate Lawlor	Cell Death and Inflammatory Signalling Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Influenza, Pneumonia
Professor Seth Masters	Innate Immune and Autoinflammatory Disease Inflammation and cancer, Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), Lupus
Associate Professor Michelle Tate	Viral Immunity and Immunopathology COVID-19, Influenza, Pneumonia
Professor Carl Walkley	RNA Biology and Innate Immune Sensing
Dr Wilson Wong	Structural Biology of Inflammation and Cancer Bowel cancer