Professor O’Neill’s research encompasses molecular immunology, viral and tumour immunology and immune cell development. After a PhD at the John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) at ANU, she was appointed as Research Fellow and became a Fellow in 1989. She held two overseas fellowships during this time: 1983-1985, CJ Martin Fellow (NHMRC) at Stanford University under Irv Weissman; 1987-1988, Yamagiwa-Yoshida Fellow (International Union against Cancer), Department of Pathology at Stanford University. In 1996 she took a research/teaching position in the School of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology where she is now Professor. She has supervised 24 PhD students and received the Vice-Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Supervision in 2004. She has published over 120 papers including 11 invited reviews. Her current research involves hematopoietic stem cells and their regenerative capacity, the hematopoiesis of dendritic cells in normal and diseased states and their role in transplantation tolerance for stem cell therapy.

Contact Details

E: Helen.ONeill@anu.edu.au T: (+61 2) 6125 4720 F: (+61 2) 6125 0313

Main Research interests

Hematopoiesis and stem cells. Development and function of dendritic cells. Normal and neoplastic T cell development. The molecular basis of the immune response.

Teaching Activities

BIOL1007 : Living Cells (Convenor) BIOL3144 : Molecular Immunology (Convenor)

Awards

Vice-Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Supervision (2004) http://researchsuper.cedam.anu.edu.au/reflections/helen-oneill

Current Research Group

Alex Peng - PhD student Jonathan Tan - PhD student Rebecca Hinton - PhD student Pravin Periasamy - PhD student Jing Ji - PhD student (visiting from JCSMR) Kristin Griffiths - Research Assistant Ying Ying Hey - Research Project student Marita Smith - PhB student Xia You (Jet) Cheng - PhB Student Adam Keighley - Medical Sciences student Past students working in collaboration with the lab Dr Ben Quah Dr Janice Abbey Dr Keping Ni Dr Heather Wilson

Research Activities

Cells involved in an immune response against foreign pathogens include T and B lymphocytes and dendritic or antigen presenting cells. These are hemopoietic cells that develop from self renewing progenitors produced in bone marrow. Our primary interest is in the development of function in dendritic cells and considers the niche or microenvironment in which hematopoiesis occurs, in particular the role of splenic niches in the development of tolerogenic dendritic cells. Our work combines both molecular and cell biology methods to define genes, cell surface receptors and growth factors important in hematopoiesis of dendritic cells and T cells. The overall aim is to delineate the development of these important cell lineages in both normal and diseased states.

Publications

2009 Periasamy, Tan, Griffiths, O'Neill. (2009) Splenic stromal niches support hematopoiesis of dendritic-like cells from precursors in bone marrow and spleen.   Accepted for publication in Experimental Hematology Xiao Cheng and Helen O'Neill (2009) Oncogenesis and cancer stem cells: current opinions and future directions, Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine, in press 2008 O'Neill, H.C. and Quah, B.(2008) Exosomes secreted by bacterially infected macrophages are proinflammatory. Science Signaling, 1(6), p. pe8.[Science Signaling] Abbey, J.L. and O'Neill, H.C. (2008) Detection of spliced and unspliced forms of germline TCR-Vbeta transcripts in extrathymic lymphoid sites. Molecular Immunology, 45, 1099-1111. Epub Sept 4, 2007 [PubMed] Abbey, J.L. and O'Neill, H.C. (2008) Expression of T cell receptor genes during early T cell development. Immunology and Cell Biology, 86 (2), 166-174. Epub 2007 Oct 23 [PubMed] Despars G, Periasamy P., Tan J., Abbey JL, O'Neill TJ, O'Neill HC. 2008 Gene signature of stromal cells which support dendritic cell development. Stem Cells and Development. 17: 917-928 2007 Periasamy, P. and O'Neill, H.C. (2007) Role of splenic niches in dendritic cell development. Trends in Developmental Biology, 2, 51-9. Quah, B. and O'Neill, H.C. (2007) Mycoplasma contaminants present in exosome preparations induce polyclonal B cell responses. Journal of Leukocyte Biology, 82, 1070-1082 [Leukocyte] Tan, J., Ni. K., Li, F., and O'Neill, H.C. (2007) Hematopoiesis of immature myeloid dendritic cells in stroma-dependent spleen longterm cultures occurs independently of NF-kB/RelB function. Experimental Hematology, 35, 1580-1593. [PubMed] Quah B and O'Neill HC (2007) Characteristics of B cell responses to Mycoplasma" Journal of Leukocyte Biology 82, 1070-1082 [PubMed] Tan, J. and O'Neill, H.C. (2007) Development of dendritic cells from precursors within the murine spleen environment. Stem Cells, 25 2139-2145 [PubMed] Despars, G., O¹Neill, T.J. and O'Neill, H.C. (2007) Analysis of unreplicated microarray data: use of stringent p-value selection to identify differentially expressed genes. Immunology and Cell Biology, 85, 567-570 [PubMed] Despars, G., Tan, J., Periasamy, P., O'Neill, H.C. (2007) The Role of stroma in hematopoiesis and dendritic cell development. Current Stem Cell Research and Therapy, 2, 23-29 .[Bentham Science] 2006 O'Neill, H.C. (2006) Dendritic cell therapy for tolerance induction during stem cell transplantation. Current Stem Cell Research and Therapy 1, 121-125. [Bentham Science] Abbey, J.L., Hulett, M. and O'Neill, H.C. (2006) Cell surface expression of a peptide encoded by the unrearranged TCR-Vbeta8.2 gene. Molecular Immunology,43, 1408-1414. [PubMed] Despars, G.D. and O'Neill, H.C.(2006) Splenic endothelial cells support development of dendritic cells from bone marrow. Stem Cells, 24, 1496-1504. [PubMed] Despars, G. and O'Neill, H.C. (2006) Heterogeneity amongst splenic stromal cells which support dendritic cell hematopoiesis. In Vitro Cellular and Molecular Biology-Animal, 42, 208-215. [PubMed] 2005 Despars, G.D. and O'Neill, H.C. (2005) Splenic endothelial cells support dendritic cell development from bone marrow. Tissue Antigens, 66, 397-398. Quah, B.J. and O'Neill, H.C. (2005) The immunogenicity of dendritic cell-derived exosomes. Blood Cells Molecules and Disease 35:94-110 . [PubMed] Quah, B.J. and O'Neill, H.C. (2005) Maturation of function in dendritic cells for tolerance and immunity. Journal of Cellular and Molecular Medicine 9:643-54 [PubMed]. Tan, J.K.H. and O'Neill, H.C. (2005) Maturation requirements for dendritic cells in T cell stimulation leading to tolerance versus immunity. Journal of Leukocyte Biology 78:319-24 . [PubMed] 2004 Wilson. H.L. and O'Neill, H.C. (2004) Preparation of label from small cell numbers for microarray screening. OMICS: A Journal of Integrative Biology 8: 190-6. [PubMed] O'Neill, H.C. and Wilson, H. (2004) Limitations with in vitro production of dendritic cells using cytokines. Journal of Leukocyte Biology 75: 600-3. Abbey, J. and O'Neill, H.C. (2004) Germline transcription of multiple TCR-Vbeta genes in cloned T cell lines. Immunology and Cell Biology 82: 393-9.[PubMed] Despars, G. and O'Neill, H.C. (2004) A role for niches in the development of a multiplicity of dendritic cell subsets. Experimental Hematology 32: 235-43. [PubMed] Quah, B., Ni, K. and O'Neill, H.C. (2004) In vitro hematopoiesis produces a distinct class of immature dendritic cells from spleen progenitors with limited T cell stimulation capacity. International Immunology 16: 567-77.[PubMed] O'Neill, H.C., Wilson, H.L., Quah, B., Abbey, J.L., Despars, G. and Ni, K. (2004) Dendritic cell development in long term spleen stromal cultures. Stem Cells : 22: 475-86. [PubMed] Despars, G., Ni, K., Bouchard, A., O'Neill, T.J. and O'Neill, H.C. (2004) Molecular definition of an in vitro niche for early dendritic cell development. Experimental Hematology 32: 1182-93. [PubMed] 2003 Wilson, H.C. and O'Neill, H.C. (2003) Dynamics of dendritic cell development from precursors maintained in stroma-dependent long-term cultures. Immunology and Cell Biology 81: 144-51.[PubMed] Wilson, H. and O'Neill, H.C. (2003) Murine dendritic cell development: difficulties associated with subset analysis. Immunology and Cell Biology 81: 239-46. [PubMed] Wilson, H. and O'Neill, H.C. (2003) Identification of differentially expressed genes representing dendritic cell precursors and their progeny. Blood 102: 1661-9. [PubMed] Wilson, H. and O'Neill, H.C. (2003) Gene Expression during dendritic cell development in vitro . Experimental Haematology 31: 86.