Barrow laboratory: Tissue immunosurveillance strategies
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Head of Laboratory
Dr Alexander David Barrow+61390356297
Research Overview
View Dr Alexander Barrow's latest ORCID publications listing here.
The Barrow laboratory is interested in mechanisms of tissue immunosurveillance, in particular a new immunological recognition strategy termed ‘growth factor surveillance’. Growth factors (GFs) are over-expressed by cancer cells to promote tumour growth. Pathogens, especially viruses, also encode GF homologues that are required for host infectivity. We first showed the immune system evolved activating receptors to sense aberrant GF expression by cancers and pathogens. The Barrow lab’s goal is to understand how the immune system recognises GF expression by tumours and infected cells with the ultimate aim of exploiting these pathways for cancer immunotherapy and the development of new vaccines. More recently, we have become interested in how immune cells may use GF surveillance for immunosurveillance of the brain, such as glioblastoma, a devastating high grade glioma of poor survival.
Staff
Dr Nazanin Ghazanfari, Research Officer
Sarvenaz Sabourirad, PhD Graduate Researcher
Alexander James Sedgwick, PhD Graduate Researcher
Yuhan Sun, PhD Graduate Researcher
Funding
MRFF Accelerated Research Program 'Role of the NKp44-PDGF-DD axis in Glioblastoma'
Research Opportunities
This research project is available to PhD students, Masters by Research, Honours students to join as part of their thesis.
Please contact the Research Group Leader to discuss your options.