Auto-inflammatory disorders, cancers and telomere biology disorders are caused by inherited mutations and affect millions of Australians and nationalities worldwide.  I investigate how mis-regulated inflammation and cell proliferation drives these disorders with the aim of developing treatments for patients.

Dr Wong’s research focuses on understanding how inherited mutations cause auto-inflammatory disorders of the skin, lung, bowel and brain, ultimately to inform new treatments for patients.

A structural biologist, Dr Wong specialises in visualising protein structures and elucidating the mechanisms of drug action. Through these structural studies, the function of proteins and the associated disease processes can be understood at the atomic level, providing valuable information for drug development.

Dr Wong’s research focus is on investigating the function of small molecular machines in cells that control inflammation and cellular aging. Electron microscopy is used to visualise high-resolution images of these molecular machines to understand their functions, and how potential drugs could interact and alter their activities.

Dr Wong’s research interest is understanding the functions of inflammasomes and telomeres and how disease-causing mutations change the inflammatory and proliferative capacity of cells. This involves

• Visualising the structures of protein complexes
• Understanding how mutations alter their structures and functions
• Investigating how small molecules could inhibit their activities.

In the past 10 years Dr Wong’s research has contributed to the understanding and treatment of malaria infection and understanding the structures of malaria vaccine candidates for development. Extending this work, Dr Wong is investigating the parasite factors that activate the inflammatory processes that lead to disease pathologies.

Dr Wong has received significant funding from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) through the award of a Peter Doherty Fellowship and a current NHMRC Investigator fellowship.

Education | Dr Wilson Wong

2013	PhD	Monash University	Melbourne
2004	Bachelor of Science (1st class Honours)	Monash University	Melbourne
2003	Bachelor of Biomedical Science	Griffith University	Gold Coast

Awards and Fellowships | Dr Wilson Wong

2021-2025	Investigator Fellowship (EL2)	NHMRC
2019	Burnet Prize	Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
2013-2016	Peter Doherty Fellowship	NHMRC
2007-2010	Monash Faculty PhD Scholarship	ARC Centre of Excellence for Structural and Functional Microbial Genomics

Affiliations

Adjunct Senior Research Fellow

Monash University

Links

Google scholar

Selected publications

• Wong W*, Huang R*, Menant S, Hong C, Sandow JJ, Birkinshaw RW, Healer J, Hodder AN, Kanjee U, Tonkin CJ, Heckmann D, Soroka V, Sogaard TMM, Jorgensen T, Duraisingh MT, Czabotar PE, Jongh WAd, Tham WH, Webb AI, Yu Z, Cowman AF. (2019) Structure of Plasmodium falciparum Rh5-CyRPA-Ripr invasion complex, Nature. 565: 118-121. *co-first author

• Wong W*, Bai XC*, Sleeb BE*, Triglia T*, Brown A, Thompson JK, Jackson KE, Hanssen E, Marapana DS, Fernandez IS, Ralph SA, Cowman AF, Scheres SHW, Baum J. (2017) Mefloquine targets the Plasmodium falciparum 80S ribosome to inhibit protein synthesis.  Nature Microbiology 2 Article number: 17031. *co-first author

• Wong W*, Bai XC*, Brown A*, Fernandez IS, Hanssen E, Condron M, Tan YH, Baum J, Scheres SH. (2014) Cryo-EM structure of the Plasmodium falciparum 80S ribosome bound to the anti-protozoan drug emetine eLife 3 – P12695994, *co-first author

• Wong W, Skau CT, Marapana DS, Hanssen E, Taylor NL, Riglar DT, Zuccala ES, Angrisano F, Lewis H, Catimel B, Clarke OB, Kershaw NJ, Perugini MA, Kovar DR, Gulbis JM, Baum J. (2011) Minimal requirements for actin filament disassembly revealed by structural analysis of malaria parasite Actin Depolymerizing Factor 1, PNAS 108(24):9869-74.