Dr Nicole Mifsud is Group Leader of the Clinical Immunology Laboratory in the Department of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology and Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University. She graduated with a PhD in Immunology in 2005 at the University of Melbourne, with a particular focus in transplantation immunology. Dr Mifsud completed her first postdoctoral training in T cell immunology examining immunogenic epitopes in influenza and melanoma at the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research (Melbourne). Her second postdoctoral position reignited her passion for clinical research in transplantation immunology in the Department of Medicine, Monash University/Alfred Hospital. Dr Mifsud’s research program explores T cell-mediated immune responses. The exquisite specificity of TCR/peptide/HLA complex interactions are critical for immune reactivity involved in pathogenic control and clearance, but are also pertinent to many human disorders (i.e. autoimmunity, allergy, cancer) and therapies for end-stage disease (i.e. transplantation). However, TCR cross-reactivity is known to drive inappropriate T cell responses that contribute to human disease susceptibility and allograft rejection in transplantation. Understanding the intrinsic nature of T cells to be cross-reactive and their impact in human disease is of critical importance to provide translatable outcomes for clinical management of individual patients (personalised medicine), as well as providing a mechanistic framework for the development of immunotherapeutics.

Related Links:

• Victorian Infection and Immunity Network (VIIN) research, collaboration and supervision profile, google scholar