
Matthew Call
veski innovation fellow
Dr Matthew Call moved to Melbourne from Harvard Medical School, USA to take up the position of Laboratory Head within the Structural Biology Division of The Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research.
Dr Call was awarded a veski innovation fellowship in March 2011.
Intramembrane mechanics of immunoreceptor activation
Research project description:
Cells of the immune system actively survey their surroundings for signs of infection or cancer to initiate an appropriate immune response.
Matthew's research focuses on the structure and function of the molecular sensors used by these cells to detect such dangerous events. Portions of these sensors are deeply embedded in the cell membrane where they are exceedingly difficult to study, yet these very domains likely perform crucial roles in transmitting environmental information to the cell interior and are thus excellent targets for developing new drugs.
He recently developed innovative biochemical and biophysical techniques that open a view into this 'blind spot' in immune signalling and discovered important features of receptor structure that were previously inaccessible.
With access to Victoria's world-class bioresearch facilities and potential collaborations with scientists such as Peter Colman who have a wealth of experience developing new pharmaceuticals using molecular structures, he will build upon these discoveries to push beyond static views of receptor structure and describe the molecular forces controlling immune activation.
This level of regulation in immune signalling is almost completely unstudied, and Matthew believe it will lead to entirely new therapeutics for controlling immune responses in a wide variety of disease states.
- Matthew and his wife Melissa have been appointed Laboratory Heads within the Structural Biology Division at Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research
- He planned to go to medical school but decided on basic biology and found laboratory research to be more ‘fun’
- Matthew grew up in Dallas, Texas and his parents are both retired public educators
veski connection members in the news
Apr 2020 | Royal Society
Prof Jane Visavader, 2018 Victoria Prize for Science & Innovation recipient, elected to the Royal Societyin 2020
“The real benefit of increasing fabrication rates is the transition from prototyping, making one offs, to actually going into production.”
Assoc Prof Timothy Scott
Nov 2019 | Bionics Institute
Dr Thushara Perera, 2016 Victoria Fellow, received the prestigious AMP Foundation’s Tomorrow Fund
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