Centre for Innate Immunity & Infectious Disease Student Projects

Toll-like Receptors in Innate Immunity Research Projects

The role of toll-like receptors in innate immunity
Project leader:  Dr Ashley Mansell
Phone:  9594 7215

Inflammation is the body’s response to infection, which in the extreme form results in sepsis.  There are 18 million cases of severe sepsis worldwide per year resulting in 1400 daily deaths, killing more people than the cancers of breast, colon, pancreas and prostate combined.

Recently, the discovery of the Toll-like Receptor [TLR] family has added considerable complexity to the innate immune response to microbial pathogens. A greater understanding of the pathways and mediators of the cytosolic signalling pathway that regulates the TLR-mediated immune response to pathogens may provide therapeutics for the control of chronic inflammatory responses such as septic shock, sepsis, and chronic inflammatory disease.

Our studies consists of several projects with a primary focus on understanding the mechanism and biological outcomes of Toll-like receptor signaling pathways, the negative regulation of these pathways and the subversion of these pathways by pathogens.  A better understanding of how TLRs recognize danger, induce signal transduction pathways and are negatively regulated will give insights into better therapeutics to treat or alleviate these conditions that effect our ability to have a healthy start to life, to age well, and productively.