Computational Biology

About us

General information – systems medicine

The Systems Immunology and Computational Biology utilise inter-disciplinary approaches to study the complex interactions between pathogen, host and environmental factors which underpin human diseases. The units are led by a collaborative team of clinicians and scientists encompassing the clinical disciplines of infectious diseases, hepatology and epidemiology, as well as translational studies in the disciplines of immunology, virology and systems biology (bioinformatics, statistics and mathematical modelling).

Immunology

Our group has a strong focus on immunology. We have recently developed single cell RNAseq to study the transcriptomic profile of antigens specific T cells. Our goal is to understand how an immune response changes over time during an infection. We are very interested in new technologies and interdisciplinary approaches to study responses.

The Systems Medicine group focuses on computational and statistical analyses that help understanding complex traits in human diseases, viral infections and host immune responses.

We are a vibrant and interdisciplinary group, interested in a systems biology approach, hence working across bioinformatics, mathematical models, statistics, virology, immunology and epidemiology. We are currently focusing on HCV immunovirology, as well as network analyses of co-evolving genomes, and also mathematical modelling of T cell trafficking and immune escape in viral infections.

Current research projects include:

Next generation Sequencing of viral genomes (HCV viral dynamics) to also detect escape mutants that avoid immune responses causing chronic infections.
Bioinformatics software development for NGS data.
T cell dynamics and Antibody neutralizing responses during HCV infections.
Statistical analyses and mathematical modeling of HCV and HBV transmission and treatment as prevention among people who inject drugs.
T cell trafficking in the liver, in collaboration with Dr Patrick Bertolino and Dr David Bowen at the Centenary Institute (University of Sydney).