Professor Paul Hertzog is the Director of the Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases; Associate Director of the Hudson Institute of Medical Research; NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow; a Research Professor of Monash University; and an Adjunct Professor at the Chinese Academy of Sciences. He obtained his PhD from the University of Melbourne, then undertook postdoctoral positions in the USA at the Eppley Institute of Cancer Research and at the University of York in the UK. Professor Hertzog has an established record of research on immune responses to cancer and infectious diseases, using a multidisciplinary approach involving analyses of the cell, molecular biology of cytokine signalling and gene regulatory networks, preclinical genetically modified mouse models of disease, and clinical studies.

His group’s work has been published in eminent journals including Cell, Science, Nature Immunology, Nature Medicine, Immunity, and the Journal of Clinical Investigation, among others. This work resulted in Professor Hertzog being awarded the international 2013 Milstein Award for Excellence in Interferon and Cytokine Research. Professor Hertzog is founder of the Victorian Infection and Immunity Network and its Industry Alliance Program, and he co-convenes the Lorne Infection and Immunity annual conference.

Selected publications

• de Weerd NA, Vivian JP, Nguyen TK, Mangan NE, Gould JA, Braniff SJ, Zaker-Tabrizi L, Fung KY, Forster SC, Beddoe T, Reid HH, Rossjohn J, Hertzog PJ (2013) Structural basis of a unique interferon-β signaling axis mediated via the receptor IFNAR1. Nature Immunol 14:901-907.

• Hertzog PJ, Williams BR (2013) Fine tuning type I interferon responses. Cytokine Growth Factor Rev 24:217-225.

• Fung KY, Mangan NE, Cumming H, Horvat JC, Mayall JR, Stifter SA, De Weerd N, Roisman LC, Rossjohn J, Robertson SA, Schjenken JE, Parker B, Gargett CE, Nguyen HP, Carr DJ, Hansbro PM, Hertzog PJ (2013) Interferon-ε protects the female reproductive tract from viral and bacterial infection. Science 339:1088-1092.

• Forster SC, Finkel AM, Gould JA, Hertzog PJ (2013) RNA-eXpress annotates novel transcript features in RNA-seq data.Bioinformatics 29:810-812.

• Rusinova I, Forster S, Yu S, Kannan A, Masse M, Cumming H, Chapman R, Hertzog PJ (2013) Interferome v2.0: an updated database of annotated interferon-regulated genes. Nucleic Acids Res 41(Database issue):D1040-D1046.

• Bidwell BN, Slaney CY, Withana NP, Forster S, Cao Y, Loi S, Andrews D, Mikeska T, Mangan NE, Samarajiwa SA, de Weerd NA, Gould J, Argani P, Möller A, Smyth MJ, Anderson RL, Hertzog PJ*, Parker BS* (2012) Silencing of Irf7 pathways in breast cancer cells promotes bone metastasis through immune escape. Nature Med 218:1224-1231. (*corresponding author)

• Crack PJ, Gould J, Bye N, Ross S, Ali U, Habgood MD, Morganti-Kossman C, Saunders NR, Hertzog PJ; Victorian Neurotrauma Research Group (2009) The genomic profile of the cerebral cortex after closed head injury in mice: effects of minocycline. J Neural Transm 116:1-12.

• Mansell A, Smith R, Doyle SL, Gray P, Fenner JE, Crack PJ, Nicholson SE, Hilton DJ, O’Neill LA, Hertzog PJ (2006) Suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 negatively regulates Toll-like receptor signaling by mediating Mal degradation.Nature Immunol 7:148-155.

• Fenner JE, Starr R, Cornish AL, Zhang JG, Metcalf D, Schreiber RD, Sheehan K, Hilton DJ, Alexander WS, Hertzog PJ (2006) Suppressor of cytokine signaling 1 regulates the immune response to infection by a unique inhibition of type I interferon activity. Nature Immunol 7:33-39.

• Mansell A, Brint E, Gould JA, O’Neill LA, Hertzog PJ (2004) Mal interacts with tumor necrosis factor receptor-associated factor (TRAF)-6 to mediate NF-kappaB activation by toll-like receptor (TLR)-2 and TLR4. J Biol Chem279:37227-37230.

• Schroder K, Hertzog PJ, Ravasi T, Hume DA (2004) Interferon-gamma: an overview of signals, mechanisms and functions. J Leukoc Biol 75:163-189.

• Hertzog PJ, O’Neill LA, Hamilton JA (2003) The interferon in TLR signaling: more than just antiviral. Trends Immunol24:534-539.

• Xu D, Wilson TJ, Chan D, De Luca E, Zhou J, Hertzog PJ, Kola I (2002) Ets1 is required for p53 transcriptional activity in UV-induced apoptosis in embryonic stem cells. EMBO J 221:4081-4093.

• Alexander WS, Starr R, Fenner JE, Scott CL, Handman E, Sprigg NS, Corbin JE, Cornish AL, Darwiche R, Owczarek CM, Kay TW, Nicola NA, Hertzog PJ, Metcalf D, Hilton DJ (1999) SOCS1 is a critical inhibitor of interferon gamma signaling and prevents the potentially fatal neonatal actions of this cytokine. Cell 98:597-608.

• Owczarek CM, Hwang SY, Holland KA, Gulluyan LM, Tavaria M, Weaver B, Reich NC, Kola I, Hertzog PJ (1997) Cloning and characterization of soluble and transmembrane isoforms of a novel component of the murine type I interferon receptor, IFNAR 2. J Biol Chem 272:23865-23870.

• Kola I, Hertzog PJ (1997) Animal models in the study of the biological function of genes on human chromosome 21 and their role in the pathophysiology of Down syndrome. Hum Mol Genet 6:1713-1727.

• Hwang SY*, Hertzog PJ*, Holland KA, Sumarsono SH, Tymms MJ, Hamilton JA, Whitty G, Bertoncello I, Kola I (1995) A null mutation in the gene encoding a type I interferon receptor component eliminates antiproliferative and antiviral responses to interferons alpha and beta and alters macrophage responses. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 192:11284-11288. (*joint first authors)