Seth Masters

Associate Professor Masters returned from Trinity College in Dublin to join the newly formed Inflammation Division as a Laboratory Head at Melbourne’s Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.

Research project: Virus and host miRNA that target the innate immune system and inflammation

A large number of people are diagnosed with chronic inflammatory diseases, caused when their bodies fight an infection that does not exist – a ghost. Seth wants to understand what’s happening at a molecular level to discover a therapy that will change sufferer’s lives. The body naturally defends itself from disease and infection with inflammation by white blood cells killing foreign organisms or diseased cells to kick-start the healing process. However, surrounding tissues can be destroyed if the inflammatory response is too strong, leading to chronic inflammatory diseases.

These diseases, which include rheumatoid arthritis, gout, cancer and type-2 diabetes, are common problems for Australians, meaning understanding them has become a key focus in the inflammation field. Seth’s project will investigate an important class of regulators that limit inflammation called micro-RNAs. He has identified a micro-RNA that limits inflammation linked to several diseases including Crohns disease.

Seth also aims to identify micro-RNAs in viruses that are resistant to the immune system and target them with technologies such as “locked nucleic acids”, a newly developed technology not currently employed in the fight against viral infections. His trials against the herpes simplex and Epstein-Barr virus will be a first, not only for Victoria, but globally as well.