Graham Le Gros
Director and Group Leader Malaghan Institute of Medical Research
Nearest Fax: 04 499 6915
Research interests
The long-term goal of my research programme is to develop vaccines against asthma, allergy and human hookworm.
Understanding the signals that trigger the initiation of asthma and allergy is critical for the identification of specific treatments that selectively suppress only the allergic Th2 immune response. My research group is using murine models, immunological assays and structure/function analyses to generate much needed information in this poorly understood field. Important outcomes of this work will be the development of generally applicable vaccines and therapies for the treatment of individuals with established allergic disease, and the identification of improved immunological markers for monitoring human airway inflammation and allergy.
The flip-side to allergic responses is that they are the ones that protect against parasitic diseases. Therefore, in parallel to my asthma and allergy research, I also have a parasitology research programme dedicated to the development of a vaccine against human hookworm, one of the great neglected tropical diseases that keeps over a billion people in a state of poor health. Using the rodent model of human hookworm, Nippostrongylus brasiliensis, in combination with cytokine and cell knockout murine models, we are looking for putative targets both for vaccine design and testing of vaccine efficacy in the field.
Visit my Asthma and Allergic Diseases Group web page