The Univeristy of Melbourne The Royal Melbourne Hopspital

A joint venture between The University of Melbourne and The Royal Melbourne Hospital

Associate Professor Maria Liaskos

Associate Professor Maria Liaskos

(03) 9035 7481 | maria.liaskos@unimelb.edu.au

Position:
Laboratory Head
Theme(s):
Immunology, Antimicrobial Resistance, Bacterial and Parasitic Infections
Discipline(s):
Discovery Research
Unit(s):
The University of Melbourne, Department of Microbiology and Immunology (DMI)
Lab Group(s):
Liaskos Group

Associate Professor Maria Kaparakis-Liaskos obtained her PhD in Microbiology from the University of Melbourne. She undertook post-doctoral studies at Monash University and then at the Hudson Institute, where she also established her independent research group as an inaugural veski inspiring women fellow. In 2016, Maria joined La Trobe University as a teaching and research academic and was appointed Deputy Director, and subsequently Director, of the La Trobe Research Centre for Extracellular Vesicles.

Maria joined the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the Doherty Institute in 2024 as a teaching and research academic. Her research is primarily focused on understanding how bacterial pathogens such as Helicobacter pylori cause disease in humans, in addition to determining how bacterial membrane vesicles enhance bacterial survival and promote pathogenesis.

  • Key Achievements
    • Maria has received numerous awards for her research in the fields of microbiology and innate immunity. This includes being awarded an inaugural veski Inspiring Women Fellowship (2015), a Victorian Young Tall Poppy Award (2016), the Australian Society for Microbiology Frank Fenner Award (2019), and the International Cytokine and Interferon Society Milstein young investigator award. Maria is also a fellow of the Australian Society for Microbiology.

    Publications
    Loading ORCID data…
    Projects
    • Bacterial membrane vesicles and their role in promoting pathogenesis

      Bacterial membrane vesicles are nanoparticles that are naturally produced by all bacteria as part of their normal growth. Bacterial membrane vesicles serve a range of key biological functions to ultimately promote pathogenesis, bacterial survival and antimicrobial resistance. This project focuses on examining the contribution of bacterial membrane vesicles to promoting pathogenesis and bacterial survival in various environments and conditions, in addition to elucidating the ability of bacterial membrane vesicles to mediate horizontal gene transfer. This project involves a variety of microbiology, immunology and imaging based techniques.

    • Immune responses to the human gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori

      Helicobacter pylori is a Gram negative bacterium that infects more than 3 billion people worldwide, causing a spectrum of diseases ranging from gastritis, to gastric ulcers and gastric cancer. H. pylori manipulates the host’s immune system into mounting an ineffective, chronic and mildly inflammatory immune response, to promote lifelong infection of the host. The exact mechanism(s) whereby H. pylori manipulates the host immune system to facilitate chronic H. pylori colonisation remain unknown. This project will examine the mechanisms whereby H. pylori and their products manipulates the human immune system to promote pathogenesis. This project involves a variety of microbiology, immunology and imaging based techniques.

    Research Groups
    • Liaskos Group

      The Liaskos group is primarily focused on understanding the cellular and molecular mechanisms of host-pathogen interactions, with particular focus on bacterial pathogens and bacterial membrane vesicles. We use a range of microbiology and immunology-based techniques to examine how bacterial pathogens that infect humans cause disease, and how the host detects and responds to these pathogens and their products.


      Lab Team

      • Christopher McCrory
        Research Officer
      • Isabella Stuart
        Research Officer
      • Isra Saadaoui
        Visiting Masters Student