Immunity & Altered Self - The Struggle Between Our Self, Our Genome Sequence & Our Microbes

29 April 2008

Professor Christopher C Goodnow

World Day of Immunology 2008 Public Lecture

What defines us as individuals? What makes us both similar and different to other individuals, other species?

These are great philosophical questions throughout the history of human thought, they are a source of angst in teenagers, and they are fundamental issues in medicine. In this lecture Professor Goodnow explores these questions from the perspective of our immune system, whose raison d’etre is to distinguish our self from the legions of viruses, bacteria and other microbes that would wish to take part in or take over our self. He will give examples of progress, opportunities and challenges in improving health outcomes from the struggle between our self, our genome and our microbes.

Broad Topics: Medicine and Life Science

Sub-topics: Biological Sciences, Medical & Health Science

Areas: ANU College of Medicine and Health Sciences

Christopher C Goodnow has pioneered the use of mouse molecular genetics to reveal key mechanisms regulating the immune system – in particular the crucial ability of the immune system to learn to differentiate our own 'self' tissues from invading foreign microbes, and the capacity of the immune system to lay down specific memory of both self and foreign so that autoimmunity is minimised while immunity to infection becomes strong. His work has changed the conceptual framework of the field by showing that tolerance to self is acquired through a series of regulatory checkpoints at many steps in the maturation of immune cells.

Since 1997, he has been Professor of Immunology and Genetics at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at The Australian National University, where he is currently Division Head.