Infection and Immunity Group

Leader: Dr Guna Karupiah

Overview
Our research interests are in the broad area of virus-host interactions. The immune response has several strategies to combat infectious disease. These include innate and adaptive components, all of which are regulated by a network of critically important cellular interactions and soluble mediators. Interestingly, however, the effector mechanisms that are generated to control and clear virus instead often cause immunopathology that has serious, sometimes lethal, consequences for the host. The objective is to modulate the response in order to direct the outcome towards efficient virus clearance and to minimize pathology. For this, a clear understanding of the host's response to a virus infection is essential. 

These studies are being carried out in parallel with others that attempt to reveal the many strategies that viruses have evolved to subvert the host immune response.

An integral component of our research program, therefore, involves basic studies that attempt to dissect the roles of leukocyte subsets, cytokines, chemokines, effector proteins and some signaling molecules in viral infection and disease. We pursue this goal using a range of viral and animal models.