Leader:  Professor A Müllbacher , BSC, MSc (Auck), PhD
E:    Arno.Mullbacher@anu.edu.au 

The laboratory pursues two broad research objectives:

• to enhance our understanding of the fundamental properties of immune responses at the molecular, cellular, and system level, with a particular emphasis on immune responses against viruses;
  
  
• to study virus / host interactions at the molecular and cellular level, and through this develop strategies for the prevention or therapy of viral disease.

The members of the laboratory have wide expertise in immunology, immunopathology, and molecular virology. We have established a large number of in vitro and in vivo virus models, including encephalitic flaviviruses, influenza and parainfluenza viruses, poxviruses, alphaviruses, herpesviruses, and adenoviruses. This, together with the availability of mouse strains that are defective in specific functions of certain immune effector molecules, such as perforin, granzymes, fas receptor/ligand and cytokines (some of these were established in our lab), enables us to analyze virus/immune interactions in great detail. It also allows us to look beyond the phenomena observed in any one particular model, and gain a broader understanding of the underlying principles governing viral infections and immune defences against it. In addition, using such tailor-made defective mice, we are able to dissect the roles of these effector molecules play either in elimination of virus or in immunopathological complications arising from infection.