Centre for Innate Immunity & Infectious Disease

The Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Disease (formally the Centre for Functional Genomics and Human Disease) researches the molecular regulation of the innate immune response. This early immune response determines how the body responds to infection by pathogens. It initiates the inflammatory response and can modulate the development of some cancers.  By understanding the molecular pathways that regulate these processes as well as their normal, physiological roles, CIIID scientists aim to contribute to the development of new approaches to the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease.

A key focus of the Centre’s work is in the area of cytokine signaling. Cytokines such as interferons (IFN) and interleukins (IL) are important messenger molecules. They are produced by cells after a stimulus. Cells receive the cytokines’ message through receptors which ‘tell’ the cell to perform a particular function (e.g. migrate, kill pathogens, die or proliferate). Cytokines are produced when a cell senses ‘danger’ (such as a pathogen, inflammatory stimulus, dead cells or cancer cells), a process carried out by a family of cellular receptors that include toll like receptors (TLR).  The work of our Centre is directed to understanding the steps and connections between TLR, IFN, IL and molecular pathways in diseases such as hepatitis, lung infection and inflammatory disease, gastritis, gastric cancer and mesothelioma.

Staff and students working in CIIID have collective multidisciplinary expertise in molecular biology, signal transduction, protein interactions, cell biology, immunology, infectious disease, functional genomics and bioinformatics and transgenic techniques for generating gene knockout and transgenic mice as models of human disease.

Collaborative projects are undertaken with other MIMR centres in cancer, reproductive health and newborn conditions. We also collaborate with Southern Health Department of Infectious Diseases. CIID scientists are also active participants in the Monash Infection and Immunity Network, national initiatives such as the Australian TLR research network, TLROZ, and international consortia such the MONMAN (collaboration between Monash University and the University of Manitoba, Canada) and Australian Phenomics Network  programs.