This seminar has been cancelled

Professor Alex McLellan has a research history spanning immunology of infectious diseases, programmed cell death and cancer. He obtained his PhD on human dendritic cells in Professor Derek Hart's laboratory at the University of Otago, Christchurch in 1997, and undertook post-doctoral research on DC subsets, antigen presentation and apoptosis pathways in Würzburg, Germany. His current research focuses on engineering chimeric antigen receptor ( CAR ) T cells, optimised ex vivo expansion techniques for natural killer ( NK ) cells and therapeutic antibodies as combination therapy for cancer. He has developed compact gene expression systems to improve the activity of anti-cancer cell therapy including tuneable, bi-directional promoter systems that solves issues in controlling multiple gene expression in CAR T and CAR NK cells. This has enabled the development of dual CD19 CAR and CD20 CAR expression from a single T/NK cell. Expansion techniques for NK cells are relevant for infectious disease: NK cells lack CD4 and have potential for the ablation of HIV-infected cells, and are also a potential therapy being explored for treatment of Tb. His research into RNA translation has enabled a new platform to improve the ability of mRNA vaccines for T cell responses.