Sepsis occurs when the body’s immune response to infection damages its own tissues. In severe cases, multiple organ failure can occur. If not treated promptly, the patient will die. Yet, we currently don't have reliable treatments for it. Our solution is to target the immune system itself. My PhD focuses on a machine in our cells that is important for recognising bacterial infection and recruiting immune responders. My goal is to discover how we can switch this machine on and off.

When she arrived back in Australia in 1993, she wasn’t just bringing luggage, she was carrying cutting-edge science that would change Queensland’s research landscape forever. With a suitcase full of expertise from Rockefeller University in New York, Jenny set up Queensland’s very first protein crystallography lab, pioneering a whole new field in the state.