Professor
Laura Mackay
FAA
Professor Laura Mackay is one of Australia's most outstanding immunologists and an international leader in the field of immunological memory. Prior to her discoveries, it was erroneously thought that immune memory was controlled by bloodborne elements. Professor Mackay demonstrated this is not the case. She defined a novel population of T lymphocytes, or T cells, resident at body surfaces, showing that these tissue-embedded components were distinct from T cells circulating in the blood. Critically, she showed that tissue-resident T cells provide a dominant first-line defence against infection and cancer, revealing novel genes and pathways that can be exploited to control these cells for therapeutic gain.
Fields of research
32 BIOMEDICAL AND CLINICAL SCIENCES-
3204
IMMUNOLOGY
- 320404 Cellular Immunology
- 320409 Tumour Immunology
For full list of research codes, please visit the ARC Website .
Expertise type
- Immune Memory
- T Cells
- Immunology
- Tumour Immunology
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