Discovering genes and mechanisms regulating immune responses

This proposal seeks essential support to build an international Immunity & Infection Genomics Consortium centered in Australia to tackle three fundamental, longstanding questions about the mammalian immune system: how does the system learn not to attack self-components, how does it enhance recall responses to vaccines, and why does it fail to eliminate formidable foreign microbes such as Mycobacteria and Plasmodia? The proposal seeks to continue and extend Australia’s leadership in the field of immunity and infection, building upon groundbreaking work and infrastructure developed in Australia for translating the genome sequence of mammals into knowledge of immune mechanisms.