Professor Elizabeth Hartland, BSc (Hons), BA, PhD, Grad Cert Higher Ed, FASM, Institute Director
Bacterial infections are responsible for one in eight deaths worldwide and resistance to current antibiotics is rapidly escalating. Through detailed molecular analysis of host-pathogen interactions, my aim to develop news ways to enhance immunity and fight bacterial diseases.
Areas of interest
Antimicrobial resistance Gastroenteritis Microbiome in health and disease Pneumonia
Research group
Innate Immune Responses to Infection
Biography
An international leader in the fields of microbiology and immunology, Professor Hartland’s long-standing research interest is in the pathogenesis of infections caused by bacterial pathogens, with a focus on the inflammatory response to infection and microbial immune evasion.
Professor Hartland has made significant contributions to the understanding of underlying host and bacterial molecular mechanisms that determine the outcome of bacterial interactions with human cells and the development of disease.
Her research program is focussed on the cell intrinsic mechanisms of innate immunity and how these may be harnessed to fight infections such as Legionnaire’s Disease, melioidosis, dysentery and E. coli diarrhoea. Her goal is to define the host targets and biochemical functions of bacterial virulence ‘effector’ proteins that block cell intrinsic innate immune responses, thereby allowing bacterial pathogens to replicate and spread. This knowledge can complement the use of antibiotics by optimising the innate immune resistance to infection to block bacterial replication.
Professor Hartland has received more than $42M in grant and fellowship funding as a sole or joint investigator from both national (NHMRC and ARC), as well as international funding bodies such as the Human Frontiers Science Program.
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