IMB's latest news, explainers and more

 


Risk of depression and heart disease linked in women

Read more

Get the latest research to your inbox

Subscribe
 

  • Senior Research Fellow
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
  • PhD student
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
  • Schroder Group

      Group Leader

    Professor Kate Schroder

    NHMRC Leadership Fellow - Group Leader
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 
    Researcher biography: 

    Professor Kate Schroder heads the Inflammasome Laboratory and is Director of the Centre for Inflammation and Disease Research at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), University of Queensland, as an NHMRC Leadership Fellow. Kate’s graduate studies defined novel macrophage activation mechanisms and her subsequent postdoctoral research identified surprising inter-species divergence in the inflammatory programs of human versus mouse macrophages. As an NHMRC CJ Martin Fellow in Switzerland, Kate trained with the pioneer of inflammasome biology, Jürg Tschopp. The IMB Inflammasome Laboratory, which Kate heads, investigates the molecular mechanisms governing inflammasome activity and caspase activation, the cellular mediators of inflammasome-dependent inflammation, and mechanisms of inflammasome inhibition by cellular pathways and small molecule inhibitors.

    Kate is a co-inventor on patents for small molecule inhibitors of the NLRP3 inflammasome, currently under commercialisation by Inflazome Ltd. Inflazome Ltd was recently acquired by Roche in a landmark deal – one of the largest in Australian and Irish biotech history. The acquisition gives Roche full rights to Inflazome’s portfolio of inflammasome inhibitors. Two of the company’s drug candidates are in clinical trials for the treatment of debilitating conditions such as cardiovascular disease, arthritis and neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s, Alzheimer’s and motor neuron disease.

    Kate has authored more than 140 publications, featuring in journals such as Science, Cell, Nature Genetics, Nature Medicine, Nature Chemical Biology, Journal of Experimental Medicine and PNAS USA, and her work has been cited more than 35,000 times. Kate is an Editorial Board Member for international journals including Science Signaling, Clinical and Translational Immunology and Cell Death Disease. She is the recipient of the 2022 Women in Technology Excellence in Science Award, 2020 Nancy Mills Award for Women in Science, 2019 ANZSCDB Emerging Leader Award, 2019 Merck Research Medal, 2014 Milstein Young Investigator Award, 2013 Tall Poppy Award, 2012 Gordon Ada Career Award, 2010 QLD Premier’s Postdoctoral Award, and the 2008 Society for Leukocyte Biology’s Dolph Adams Award.

    INFLAMMASOME LABORATORY RESEARCH

    During injury or infection, our body’s immune system protects us by launching inflammation. But uncontrolled inflammation drives diseases such as gout, diabetes, neurodegenerative disease and cancer. The Inflammasome Lab is defining the molecular and cellular processes of inflammation. We seek to unravel the secrets of inflammasomes – protein complexes at the heart of inflammation and disease – to allow for new therapies to fight human diseases.

    The Inflammasome Laboratory integrates molecular and cell biology approaches with in vivo studies to gain a holistic understanding of inflammasome function during infection, and inflammasome dysfunction in human inflammatory disease. Current research interests include the molecular mechanisms governing inflammasome activity and caspase activation, the cellular mediators of inflammasome-dependent inflammation, and inflammasome suppression by autophagy and small molecule inhibitors.

    Body: 

    Highlights

    Professor Kate Schroder is an immunologist fascinated by the biology of the innate immune system.

    She is an expert on the inflammasome, a cell signalling pathway that generates inflammation. 

    Professor Schroder’s PhD studies defined novel activation mechanisms of macrophages, an important cell of the innate immune system, and her subsequent postdoctoral research identified surprising inter-species divergence in the inflammatory programs of human versus mouse macrophages.

    As an NHMRC CJ Martin Fellow in Switzerland, she then trained with the pioneer of inflammasome biology, Jürg Tschopp. After returning to Australia, Professor Schroder established her laboratory, which is dedicated to inflammasome research.  

    The Schroder Lab are defining mechanisms of inflammasome signalling in innate immune cells, with the goal of developing new drugs to fight infection or inflammatory disease. For example, through multidisciplinary collaboration, the Schroder Lab have characterised new anti-inflammatory compounds that inhibit inflammasomes. These are currently under commercialisation for their potential as novel anti-inflammatory drugs.

    Professor Schroder is Director of the IMB Centre for Inflammation and Disease Research, and serves on the editorial boards of several major journals, including Science Signaling, Clinical and Translational Immunology, and Cell Death Discovery.

    She also served on the Scientific Advisory Board of a new start-up company that is developing inflammasome inhibitors for the treatment of human inflammatory and neurodegenerative diseases. Professor Schroder is an ARC Future Fellow, and the recipient of international awards such as the Milstein Young Investigator Award from the International Cytokine and Interferon Society, and the Dolph Adams Award from the Society for Leukocyte Biology.

    Video

    Connect

    ResearcherIDScopusOrcid
    ResearchgateLinkedin  

     

      Researchers

    Dr Sabrina Sofia Burgener

    SNF Research Fellow
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 
    Researcher biography: 

    Dr. Sabrina Sofia Burgener is Deputy Lab Head of the Disease Modelling Team of the Inflammasome Laboratory and Senior Research Fellow in Immunology at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at The University of Queensland.

    As Deputy Lab Head of the Inflammasome Group at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience (IMB), Dr. Burgener is an innate immunologist with over 12 years of cross-functional expertise in immunology, disease modelling and molecular biology. My research program focuses on a holistic understanding of inflammasome signalling in pre-clinical disease models to harness the development of new diagnostics and anti-inflammatory therapeutics.

    After obtaining her professional training as a Veterinary Technician, they completed their PhD in Immunology under supervision of A/Prof. Benarafa at the University of Bern, Switzerland in 2017.

    For their work on the cytoprotective role of Serpinb1 and Serpinb6 in neutrophils, they received several international awards such as the Society of Leukocyte Biology Presidential Award in 2016 and the Dr. Lutz Zwillenberg Prize in 2020. Before joining the Inflammasome Lab in 2019, Dr. Burgener had been a Postdoctoral Researcher at the Institute of Virology and Immunology at the Vetsuisse Faculty of the University of Bern. In the Schroder lab, Dr. Burgener leads a team of Honour and PhD students, interested in understanding how caspase-1 drives inflammatory diseases and if targeting caspase-1 in diseases such as non-alcoholic steatohepatitis and Alzheimer’s disease comes at the cost of increased susceptibility to infection. Their research is funded by SNSF Postdoc Mobility Fellowship (2020-2022) and the Novartis Foundation for Medical-Biological Research Fellowship (2022-2023).

    Dr Mercedes Monteleone

    Research Fellow, ARC
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 
    Body: 

    Mercedes joined the Inflammasome Lab as a Postdoctoral researcher in 2014 after completing her PhD at The Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology in Sydney. Mercedes is a microbiologist currently researching host-pathogen interactions.

    Ms Joanna Crawford

    Senior Research Assistant
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 

    Dr Helen Mostafavi

    Postdoctoral Research Fellow
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 
    Researcher biography: 

    Helen's interest in immune cell interactions across the tissue landscape started during her Master's and PhD with Dr. Ali Zaid at the Menzies Health Institute, Griffith University. Her PhD focused on defining the role of Interleukin-17 in virus-induced arthritis and exploring immunomodulation as a means of dampening synovial inflammation and damage. There, she was able to specialise in 3D imaging on optically-cleared tissues and high-dimensional flow cytometry. Helen received her PhD in 2022, before immediately starting a Postdoc position under Dr. Emma Gordon and Dr. Larisa Labzin at the Institute for Molecular Biosciences, University of Queensland. Her current research focuses on vascular complications in acute and long COVID-19. Specifically, Helen is developing a novel triple-culture model under air-liquid interface to investigate endothelial dysfunction and explore potential therapeutics in COVID-19.

    Dr Larisa Labzin

    ARC Future Fellow
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 
    Researcher biography: 

    Dr. Larisa Labzin studies how our innate immune system detects viral infections and how it decodes different signals to mount an appropriate immune response. Dr. Labzin's interest in innate immunity started during her honours training with Prof. Matt Sweet at the IMB, looking at how inflammatory signalling is regulated in macrophages. After gaining more experience while working as a research assistant for Prof. Sweet, she moved to Germany to the University of Bonn for her PhD. At the Univeristy of Bonn, Dr. Labzin investigated the anti-inflammatory effects of High-Density Lipoprotein with Prof. Eicke Latz. Here she discovered novel regulatory pathways that control inflammation. Dr. Labzin then moved to Cambridge, UK as an EMBO postdoctoral fellow to work with Dr. Leo James at the Medical Research Council Laboratory for Molecular Biology. In Dr. James' lab Dr. Labzin focused on how viruses are sensed by the innate immune system to trigger inflammation. In particular, Dr Labzin investigated how antibodies change the way viruses trigger inflammation. While in Cambridge, Dr. Labzin was awarded an NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship to return to Australia. Larisa returned to the IMB in September 2019 to work with Prof. Kate Schroder. Dr. Labzin is an IMB Fellow and leads an independent research team studying inflammation in response to influenza and SARS-CoV-2.

    Dr Mercedes Monteleone

    Research Fellow, ARC
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 
    Body: 

    Mercedes joined the Inflammasome Lab as a Postdoctoral researcher in 2014 after completing her PhD at The Centenary Institute of Cancer Medicine and Cell Biology in Sydney. Mercedes is a microbiologist currently researching host-pathogen interactions.

      Students

    Mr Tyron Esposito

    PhD student & Casual Senior Research Technician
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 

    Ms Xiaohui Wang

    Casual Senior Research Technician & Senior Research Assistant
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 

    Miss Kirsten Kenney

    PhD student & Casual Senior Research Technician
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 

    Miss Manasa Mellacheruvu

    PhD student & Casual Research Assistant
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 

    Mr Byron Mobbs

    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 

    Mr Jeremy Yap

    Casual Senior Research Technician
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 

    Ms Brittany Hill

    PhD student
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 

    Mr Jared Coombs

    Casual Senior Research Technician
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 

    Professional Staff

    Ms Kristina Dunn-Johnston

    Casual Senior Administration Officer & Casual Senior Administration Officer
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 
  • Discovering more about how group A streptococcus causes disease and developing treatments to combat it.
  • Forde team

    Group Leader

    Dr Brian Forde

    Senior Research Fellow
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 
    Researcher biography: 

    Brian Forde is a fellow in microbial bioinformatics and Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellow at the University of Queensland (UQ) Centre for Clinical Research (CCR). Brian was awarded a PhD from University College Cork, Ireland, in 2013 and developed his interest in bacterial genomics as a postdoctoral fellow at the UQ School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences (SCMB). Currently, his work is primarily focused on clinical microbial genomics, including: the evolution of antibiotic resistance, genomic epidemiology, genomic surveillance of Infectious Diseases and translating genomic research into clinical practice. Since 2017 he has been part of a multidisciplinary team, including researchers, infectious diseases clinicians and infection control professionals, leading the introduction of WGS to investigate hospital-acquired infection in Queensland (https://www.queenslandgenomics.org). In 2020, Brian was awarded Advance Queensland Industry Research Fellowship to explore the application of Artificial Intelligence to genomic surveillance and transmission dynamics.

    Researchers

    Mr Thom Cuddihy

    Senior Principal Bioinformatics Lab Manager
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    0
    Supervisor: 

    Dr Budi Permana

    Postdoctoral Research Fellow
    Institute for Molecular Bioscience
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 

    Students

    Ms Simone Dowd

    PhD student
    Researcher profile is public: 
    1
    Supervisor: 

Pages

Strawberry DNA extraction activity

Extract and view DNA from a strawberry using common household ingredients.

Get started

 

 

 

The Edge: Genetics

People have known for thousands of years that parents pass traits to their children, but it is only relatively recently that our technology has caught up to our curiosity, enabling us to delve into the mystery of how this inheritance occurs, and the implications for predicting, preventing and treating disease.

 View online
 Download magazine

Subscribe to our newsletter

Get the latest research straight to your inbox. 
Stay up-to-date as we answer questions about hot topics, and share the latest news at IMB, Australia’s #1 research institute.

Subscribe

General enquiries

  +61 7 3346 2222
  imb@imb.uq.edu.au

Media enquiries

IMB fully supports UQ's Reconciliation Action Plan and is implementing actions within our institute.

Support us

Donate to research
100% of donations go to the cause