Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology

Research Projects in Mintern Lab Where is the lab? The Mintern lab is based in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, The University of Melbourne at the Bio21 Institute. We work closely with Prof Villadangos' laboratory in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The University of Melbourne at the Peter Doherty Institute. Projects can be based in either location. Who's in the lab? Bio21 Institute Dr Justine Mintern Dr Nishma Gupta, Postdoctoral Fellow Hai Yin Liu, PhD student (3rd year) Patrick Schriek, PhD student (2nd year) Victor Makota, 2017 Honours Student Hayley Cron, 2017 Honours Student David Urbanavicius, 2017 Med Scholar Student Gerry Healey, Research Assistant Peter Doherty Institute Dr Hamish McWilliam, Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Jason White, Postdoctoral Fellow Dr Sathish Selvaraj, Postdoctoral Fellow Prof Jose Villadangos has offices in both Bio21 Institute and PDI. What is the major research question the lab addresses? The research our lab does investigates how an immune response is initiated. Addressing this is important because turning on an immune response is fundamental to health. Vaccination initiates long lasting immunity and currently represents our most effective strategy for eliminating infectious disease. Moreover, vaccination and immunotherapy have significant potential in settings of tumour eradication and malignancy. While many vaccines are in use worldwide, for many pathogens, including HIV, malaria and tuberculosis, our current vaccines fail and consequently these pathogens are capable of inflicting disease and devastation worldwide. Vaccination against tumors, while showing promise, has yet to make a significant clinical impact. Therefore, vaccine design must be advanced, and to do so, we require a more comprehensive understanding of the mechanisms of how immunity is initiated. What types of projects does the lab do? Projects span from cellular immunology to cell biology and biochemistry. What types of methodology does the lab use? Flow cytometry, isolation of immune cells, western, immunoprecipitation, microscopy, CRISPR/Cas9, radiolabel pulse-chase, proteomics, RNAseq.

Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology We have mouse models of tumours, influenza infection, herpes simplex infection, pneumonia, and vaccination. List of projects: 1. Exploiting nanoparticles for effective vaccination. (Bio21, Mintern lab based) 2. Manipulating immunity to fight infection and tumours: trafficking for effective immunity (Bio21, Mintern lab based). 3. Decoding the trafficking of immune receptors: ubiquitin and regulation of surface receptors. (Bio21, Mintern lab based) 4. O-GlcNAc modulation of dendritic cell function. (Bio21, Mintern lab based) 5. Using T cells to kill tumours. (PDI, Villadangos lab based) 6. How infection and neurological trauma cause dendritic cell paralysis and lethal immunosuppression. (PDI, Villadangos lab based). 7. MR1-mediated antigen presentation. (PDI, Villadangos lab based) and more! Links to lab websites: http://www.biochemistry.unimelb.edu.au/research/res_villadangos.html http://microbiol.unimelb.edu.au/research/immunology/villadangos_laboratory http://www.biochemistry.unimelb.edu.au/research/res_mintern.html http://www.bio21.unimelb.edu.au/mintern-group Who to contact for further information? Justine Mintern, jmintern@unimelb.edu.au Jose Villadangos, j.villadangos@unimelb.edu.au Contact details of current and former Mintern lab students Patrick Schriek, current PhD student: pschriek@student.unimelb.edu.au Kayla Wilson, 2016 mid year Honours student: krwilson@student.unimelb.edu.au applying for a PhD in the lab Robyn McConville 2016 Honours student: r.mcconville@student.unimelb.edu.au> working as a research assistant at Peter Doherty Institute David Urbanavicius 2017 Med Research Project student: durbanaviciu@student.unimelb.edu.au continuing studies in medicine