Immunology and Infection

Our vision is to understand host immune responses in parasitic infections so we can eliminate the diseases they cause by generating durable immunity through vaccines and drugs.

Professor Christian Engwerda

Program Director

Research Focus

The immunology and Infection laboratory studies malaria and leishmaniasis, two important parasitic diseases that affect millions of people around the world every year.

Our research focuses on CD4+ T cells because of their central role in controlling anti-parasitic immunity.

We use our discoveries to improve immune responses following vaccination or drug treatment with the aim of generating durable immunity in communities living in disease endemic areas to reduce the numbers of infections and ultimately eliminate these diseases.

Because our findings relate to inflammation, our work can also guide the development of treatments for other infections, cancer and autoimmune diseases that affect thousands of Australians.

Gallery

Morning on the Ganges, Varanasi, India. Photo by Prof. Chris Engwerda.

Kala-Azar Medical Research Centre, Muzaffarpur, India. Photo by Prof. Chris Engwerda.

Lifecycle of Leishmania parasites, incidence and severity for clinical manifestations of leishmaniasis. Adapted from: Na J, Engwerda C. 2024. The role of CD4+ T cells in visceral leishmaniasis; new and emerging roles for NKG7 and TGFβ. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. (Designed in Biorender.com).

The host immune response to malaria parasites. A — The host immune response to malaria parasites. Kumar, R., S. S. Ng and C. R. Engwerda. 2018. Immunomodulation in malaria. In “Encyclopedia of Malaria”. Editors P. G. Kremsner and S. Krishna. Springer, Heidelberg, Germany.

Research Projects

Current Research Projects

Harnessing CD4+ T cells to improve the efficacy of malaria vaccines and drugs.

Understanding the intricate balance between Th1 and Tr1 cells during infection to identify new therapeutic targets for human diseases.

Research Team

Dr Jessica Engel

Fabian Rivera

Luzia Bukali

Funding

• 2019-2023: NHMRC Senior Research Fellowship, Salary support

Publications

Wang, Y, F. De Labastida Rivera, C. L. Edwards, T. C. M. Frame, J. A. Engel, L. Bukali, J. Na, S. S. Ng, D. Corvino, M. Montes de Oca, P. T. Bunn, M. S. F. Soon, D. Andrew, J. R. Loughland, J. Zhang, F. H. Amante, B. E. Barber, J. S. McCarthy, J. A. Lopez, M. J. Boyle and C. R. Engwerda. 2023. STING activation promotes autologous type I interferon-dependent development of type 1 regulatory T cells during malaria. J Clin Invest 133:e169417.

Edwards, C. L. S. S. Ng, F. de Labastida Rivera, D. Corvino, J. A. Engel, M. Montes de Oca, L. Bukali, T. C. M. Frame, P. T. Bunn, S. B. Chauhan, S. S. Singh, Y. Wang, J. Na, F. H. Amante, J. R. Loughland, M. S. F. Soon, N. Waddell, P. Mukhopadhay, L. T. Koufariotis, R. L. Johnston, J. S. Lee, R. Kuns, P. Zhang, M. J. Boyle, G. R. Hil7, J. S. McCarthy, R. Kumar and C. R. Engwerda. 2023. Human IL-10-producing Th1 cells possess a distinct molecular signature in malaria. J Clin Invest 133:e153733.

Singh, S. S., S. B. Chauhan, S. S. Ng, D. Corvino, F. de Labastida Rivera, J. A. Engel, N. Waddell, P. Mukhopadhay, R. L. Johnston, L. T. Koufariotis, S. Nylen, O. P. Singh, C. R. Engwerda#, R. Kumar# and S. Sundar#. 2022. Increased amphiregulin expression by CD4+ T cells from individuals with asymptomatic Leishmania donovani infection. Clin Transl Immunology 11: e1396.

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