Microbiology & Immunology Research

Quicklinks: | Viral pathogenesis | Bacterial pathogenesis | Food microbiology | Immunology | Chemokines |

Microbiology is the study of prokaryotic and eukaryotic microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, viruses, and protozoan and metazoan parasites. Immunology involves a study of host responses to infectious agents, tumours and substances that are recognised by the body as foreign or “non-self”. Microbiology and Immunology are broad disciplines that encompass biochemistry, genetics, evolution, molecular biology, physiology, and epidemiology. Advances in microbiology and immunology impact on medicine, public health, agriculture, industry, biotechnology, and environmental sciences. Many of the concepts of immunology were developed by study of natural host reactions to infectious microorganisms, and knowledge of both microbiology and immunology is necessary for the study of infectious diseases.

Current areas of research in the Discipline of Microbiology and Immunology and the names of staff involved, are listed below.

Viral Pathogenesis

• Viral-induced liver cancer (Michael Beard)
• HIV replication and pathogenesis (Christopher Burrell)
• Host responses to hepatitis C virus infection (Michael Beard)
• Viral-host interactions in hepatitis B virus infection (Allison Jilbert)

Bacterial Pathogenesis

• Pathogenesis and prevention of pneumococcal disease (James Paton)
• Shigella and Listeria as invasive bacterial pathogens (Renato Morona, Connor Thomas)
• Pathogenesis of Shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli infections (James Paton, Adrienne Paton)
• Receptor mimic technologies (James Paton, Adrienne Paton, Renato Morona)
• Bacterial surface polysaccharides (Renato Morona, James Paton)
• Stress response in pathogenic bacteria (Stephen Kidd)

Food and Environmental Microbiology

• Listeria monocytogenes (Connor Thomas)
• Marine Vibrios (Connor Thomas)
• Predictive modelling (Connor Thomas)

Immunology and Immunopathology

• Immune regulation (Shaun McColl, Graham Mayrhofer, Lindsay Dent)
• T cell mediated inflammation (Graham Mayrhofer)
• Mucosal immunology (Graham Mayrhofer, Lindsay Dent)
• Asthma (Lindsay Dent)
• Helminth infections (Lindsay Dent)
• Chemokines (Shaun McColl)
• Multiple sclerosis (Shaun McColl)

Chemokine Pathobiology

• Breast cancer (Shaun McColl)
• Viral induced liver disease (Shaun McColl, Michael Beard)