Project: Understanding how gut microbiota modulate Listeria monocytogenes immunity
Bedoui Group
Listeria monocytogenes is a pathogen that causes listeriosis, which can be serious for pregnant women, the elderly and people with weakened immune systems including cancer patients, reaching a mortality rate of 20-30%. However, no vaccine is available for either prophylactic or therapeutic application. CD8+ T cells are major contributors to clearance of this infectious pathogen. Commensal bacteria can provide a first line of defence against Listeria infection but the link between the commensals, CD8+ T cell immunity and listeriosis is less clear. We have recently discovered that commensals can modulate the differentiation of CD8+ and CD4+ T cells in acute infection and cancer. This project aims to investigate how these factors are linked in Listeria infections, disentangle the underlying mechanisms and harness them for treatment.
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Bedoui Group
2 vacancies
The Bedoui Lab uses models of viral and bacterial infection to study how the innate and the adaptive immune system interact. Key foci are to understand how innate cells sense pathogens and how this information is integrated into protective adaptive T cell responses.
Bedoui Group Current Projects
Research degrees at the Doherty Institute are administered by the University of Melbourne.