Mariapia Degli-Esposti Australian Society for Microbiology Annual Scientific Meeting 2019

Mariapia Degli-Esposti

Mariapia Degli-Esposti is a NHMRC Principal Research Fellow and Professor at Monash University. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. Mariapia received a PhD in Immunology from the University of Western Australia (UWA) and undertook post-doctoral studies at Royal Perth Hospital (Perth, Australia) and then Immunex (Seattle, USA). She returned to Australia in 1998 and was appointed Group Leader in the Department of Microbiology at UWA. Since 2000 she has held competitive Research Fellowships from the NHMRC and the Wellcome Trust. In 2003 she moved to the Lions Eye Institute as Head of Immunology, and became Director of Research in 2009. In recently moved to Monash University where she heads the Experimental and Viral Immunology Group within the Infection and Immunity Program at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute and the Department of Microbiology. She continues to hold an appointment at the Lions Eye Institute as an Honorary Fellow. Her research focuses on understanding the regulation of complex immune responses, especially those involved in autoimmunity, infection and tumour control. Her laboratory has elucidated novel interactions between components of the innate and adaptive immune system and how they affect the outcome of immune responses in the setting of infection and autoimmunity. These findings have been key to both basic and translational research aimed at developing improved therapies to treat viral infections and their complications by harnessing the immune system.