Laura Mackay

Laura K. Mackay FAHMS is an internationally-recognised immunologist, Professor of Immunology at the University of Melbourne and a Laboratory Head at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity.[4][5]

Laura Mackay
Alma materUniversity of Birmingham (PhD)
Known forIdentification and role of tissue-resident memory T cells
Awards
Scientific career
FieldsImmunology
Institutions

In 2022, Mackay was the youngest ever Fellow elected to the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences.[6][7] Mackay is listed as an esteemed scientist in the Encyclopaedia of Australian Science and Innovation.[8] Her career and research on tissue-resident memory T cells have been profiled by Pursuit.[9][10] She has been interviewed by Science on diversity in STEM[11] and ABC Radio National Science Show on the influence of science on public good.[12]

Early life and education

Mackay completed her undergraduate degree in Biological Science at the University of Warwick, graduating in 2004. In 2005 she received her Master of Science at the University of Birmingham.

Mackay undertook her PhD under the supervision of Professor Alan B. Rickinson, an expert in the research of Epstein-Barr virus.[10] In 2009, she was awarded her PhD, with a thesis entitled “Antigen processing and presentation for CD8+ and CD4+ T cell recognition: newly-synthesised polypeptides versus mature proteins”.

Career

From 2009 to 2016, Mackay was a postdoctoral scientist in the Laboratory of Professor Francis Carbone at The University of Melbourne.[13] During this period, she was the first to describe the molecular program and developmental features that underpin immune cell tissue residence.[14]

In 2016, Mackay established her own research laboratory at The University of Melbourne within The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity. Her work led to her appointment as Associate-Professor in 2018, followed by promotion to Professor in 2019. Mackay is the Theme Leader in Immunology for the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity and continues as the principal investigator of the Mackay Laboratory.[5][13]

In 2022, she was the youngest ever Fellow elected to the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, with the citation on election describing her as “an internationally recognised expert in T cell immunity, contributing landmark papers that have defined how memory T cell responses are generated in body tissues”.[15]

Awards, honours and recognition

Selected publications
  • Laura K. Mackay; Azad Rahimpour; Joel Z I Ma; et al. (27 October 2013). "The developmental pathway for CD103(+)CD8+ tissue-resident memory T cells of skin". Nature Immunology. 14 (12): 1294–1301. doi:10.1038/NI.2744. ISSN 1529-2908. PMID 24162776. Wikidata Q42259563.
  • Mackay L.K., Wynne-Jones E., Freestone D., Pellicci D.G., Braun A., Kallies A., Belz G.T. and Carbone F.R. (2015) T-box transcription factors combine with the cytokines TGF-β and IL-15 to control tissue-resident memory T cell fate. Immunity 43:1101-1111.
  • Mackay L.K., Minnich M., Kragten N.A.M., Liao Y., Nota B., Seillet C., Zaid A., Man K., Preston S., Freestone D., Braun A., Wynne-Jones E., Behr F.M., Stark R., Pellicci D.G., Godfrey D.I., Belz G.T., Pellegrini M., Gebhardt T., Busslinger M., Shi W., Carbone F.R., van Lier R.A.W., Kallies A. and van Gisbergen K.P.J.M. (2016) Hobit and Blimp1 instruct a universal transcriptional program of tissue-residency in lymphocytes. Science 352:459-463.
  • Park S.L., Zaid A., Hor J.L., Christo S.N., Prier J.E., Davies B., Alexandre Y.O., Gregory J.L., Russell A., Gebhardt T., Carbone F.R., Tscharke D.C., Heath W.R., Mueller S.N. and Mackay L.K. (2018) Local proliferation maintains a stable pool of tissue-resident memory T cells after antiviral recall responses. Nature Immunology 19:183-191.
  • Savas P., Virassamy B., Ye C., Salim A., Mintoff C.P., Caramia F., Salgado R., Byrne D.J., Teo Z.L., Dushyanthen S., Byrne A., Wein L., Luen S.J., Poliness C., Nightingale S., Skandarajah A. S., Gyorki D.E., Thornton C.M., Beavis P.A., Fox S.B., Kathleen Cuningham Foundation Consortium for Research into Familial Breast Cancer (kConFab), Darcy P.K., Speed T.P., Mackay L.K.^, Neeson P.J.^ and Loi S.^ (2018) Single cell sequencing of breast cancer T cells reveals a tissue-resident memory subset associated with improved prognosis in breast cancers. Nature Medicine 24:986-993.
  • Park S.L., Buzzai A., Rautela J., Hor J.L., Hochheiser K., Effern M., McBain N., Wagner T., Edwards J., McConville R., Wilmott J., Scolyer R., Tüting T., Palendria U., Gyorki D., Mueller S.N., Huntington N.D., Bedoui S., Hölzel M., Mackay L.K.^, Waithman J.^ and Gebhardt T^. (2019) Tissue-resident memory CD8+ T cells promote melanoma-immune equilibrium in skin.  Nature 565:366-371
  • Frizzell H., Fonseca R., Christo S.N., Evrard M., Cruz-Gomez S., Zanluqui N., von Scheidt B., Freestone D., Park S.L., McWilliam H.E.G., Villadangos J.A., Carbone F.R and Mackay L.K. (2020) Organ-specific isoform selection of fatty acid binding proteins in tissue-resident lymphocytes. Science Immunology 5(46):eaay9283.
  • Christo S.N., Evrard M., Park S.L., Gandolfo L.C., Burn T.N., Fonseca R., Newman D.M., Alexandre Y.O., Collins N., Zamudio N.M., Souza-Fonseca-Guimaraes F., Pellicci D.G., Chisanga D., Shi W., Bartholin L., Belz G.T., Huntington N.D., Lucas A., Lucas M., Mueller S.N., Heath W.R., Ginhoux F., Speed T.S., Carbone F.R., Kallies A. and Mackay L.K. (2021) Discrete tissue microenvironments instruct diversity in resident memory T cell function and plasticity. Nature Immunology 22:1140-1151.
  • Evrard M., Wynne-Jones E., Peng C., Kato Y., Christo S.N., Fonseca R., Park S.L., Burn T.N., Osman M., Devi S., Chun J., Mueller S.N., Kannourakis G., Berzins S.P., Pellicci D.G., Heath W.R., Jameson S.C. and Mackay L.K. (2022) Sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor 5 (S1PR5) regulates the peripheral retention of tissue-resident lymphocytes. Journal of Experimental Medicine 219(1):e20210116.
  • Fonseca R., Burn T.B., Gandolfo L.C., Devi S., Park S.L., Obers A., Evrard M., Christo S.N., Buquicchio F.A., Lareau C.A., McDonald K.M., Sandford S.K., Zamudio N.M., Zanluqui N.G., Zaid A., Speed T.P., Satpathy A.T., Mueller S.N., Carbone F.R. and Mackay L.K. (2022) Runx3 drives a CD8+ T cell tissue residency program that is absent in CD4+ T cells. Nature Immunology 23:1236-1245.
  • Laura K Mackay; Heather M Long; Jill M Brooks; Graham S Taylor; Carol S Leung; Adrienne Chen; Fred Wang; Alan B Rickinson (18 December 2009). "T cell detection of a B-cell tropic virus infection: newly-synthesised versus mature viral proteins as antigen sources for CD4 and CD8 epitope display". PLOS Pathogens. 5 (12): e1000699. doi:10.1371/JOURNAL.PPAT.1000699. ISSN 1553-7366. PMC 2788701. PMID 20019813. Wikidata Q33519520.

References
  1. Department of Industry, Science (16 October 2019). "2019 Frank Fenner Prize for Life Scientist of the Year". Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  2. "2019 Australian Museum Eureka Prize winners". The Australian Museum. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  3. "Laura Mackay, Ph.D." Human Vaccines Project. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  4. "Professor Laura Mackay | Doherty Website". www.doherty.edu.au. Retrieved 17 August 2020.
  5. "Prof Laura Mackay". findanexpert.unimelb.edu.au. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  6. Riley, Robyn. "Immunologist's remarkable journey to high accolade". Herald Sun. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  7. Weeden, Emilia (19 October 2022). "Professor Laura Mackay becomes youngest fellow elected to the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences". School of Biomedical Sciences. Retrieved 9 May 2023.
  8. Centre for Transformative Innovation, Swinburne University of Technology. "Mackay, Laura - Person - Encyclopedia of Australian Science and Innovation". www.eoas.info. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  9. Melbourne, Andrew Trounson, University of (5 August 2018). "The cells giving our immune system more punch". Pursuit. Retrieved 7 April 2022.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  10. "Fighting infection with curiosity". Pursuit. 7 March 2020. Retrieved 14 July 2023.
  11. "The importance of diversity in STEM: A conversation with Dr. Laura Mackay". www.science.org. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  12. "Science and the public good". ABC Radio National. 3 September 2021. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
  13. "Professor Laura Mackay | Doherty Website". www.doherty.edu.au. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  14. Fehervari, Zoltan (6 December 2022). "An elegant defence". Nature Research. doi:10.1038/d42859-022-00050-5.
  15. "Professor Laura Mackay - AAHMS". aahms.org. 14 October 2022. Retrieved 3 July 2023.
  16. Rowney, Katie (6 September 2023). "First responders in our skin and gut revealed: Prof Laura Mackay - AAHMS". aahms.org. Retrieved 16 October 2023.
  17. "Award winner redefining the field of immunological memory". LEO Foundation. 10 May 2023. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  18. Shanahan, Rachel (14 October 2022). "Professor Laura Mackay". Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. Retrieved 23 October 2022.
  19. Sandler, Lanny (28 April 2023). "Woodward Medallists". Research Funding. Retrieved 30 May 2023.
  20. "Mackay, Laura – Biographical entry". Encyclopedia of Australian Science. Retrieved 3 November 2020.
  21. "Dr Laura Mackay". AIPS. Retrieved 7 April 2022.
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