The use of glucocorticoids (GC) is a pillar of modern medicine, relied upon daily in millions of patients worldwide for their broad suppressive effects on harmful inflammatory pathways. However, GC also cause predictable harmful metabolic side effects. Despite advances in care, 30-80% respectively of patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) remain chronically treated with GC. Therefore, ever since the award of the 1950 Nobel Prize for Medicine and Physiology to the team who discovered their therapeutic effects, the discovery of a safe and effective replacement for GC has represented a major unmet need for medicine.

Our group has discovered that the Glucocorticoid Induced Leucine Zipper (GILZ) is a powerful GC mimic that does not cause the harmful side effects of GC. We have shown that GILZ has similar anti-inflammatory effects to GC in a wide range of immune cells and in disease models. Therefore, targeting GILZ therapeutically represents a compelling alternative to GCs. My work focuses on paving a pathway towards developing such a therapeutic strategy to target GILZ.

See more about our research here: https://youtu.be/2KS1WZbGFJs 

I am a post-doctoral fellow in Dr Sarah Jones laboratory at Monash University’s School of Clinical Sciences, based at Monash Medical Centre and co-located with clinical researchers in the wider Rheumatology group headed by Professor Eric Morand. My research investigates the molecular factors underlying dysregulated immune responses present in autoimmune disease, with a focus on translation towards glucocorticoid-sparing treatments. I recently completed my PhD in 2022 in Professor Stephen Turner’s T Cell Transcriptional and Epigenetic Laboratory at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University. Here I received training in molecular biology techniques and mouse models of viral infection to study the regulation of CD8⁺ T cells by GILZ.

I am currently recruiting PhD, Honours and BMedSci students. Please contact me if you are interested in joining our group.

Author at Nelson Cengage Learning 

• Nelson Biology VCE Units 3 & 4 (Student Book with 4 Access Codes) Sarah Jones, Taylah Bennett, Ann Catchart, Tony Chiovitti, Adrianne Harrowfield.  Copyright year: 2021. ISBN: 978017030265