Jonathan Sprent was born in England and grew up in Brisbane where he went through medical school at The University of Queensland before obtaining a PhD from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne in 1972. After post-doctoral training in Switzerland and England, he worked for 30 years in the USA at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, and then The Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, before returning to Australia in 2005 supported by a Burnet Award. He is currently Professor at the Garvan Institute of Medical Research in Sydney. Jonathan works on T cells and has special interests in immunological memory and tolerance, transplantation immunity and cancer immunotherapy.

Boosting cytokine function with antibodies
by Professor Jonathan Sprent

By binding to cell-surface molecules or cytokines, monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) can be used clinically as powerful antagonists. In certain situations, however, mAbs can have the opposite effect and act as agonists. For T cells and the cytokine interleukin 2 (IL-2), anti-IL-2 mAbs can inhibit some T cells but stimulate others. For the latter, stimulation of T cells is mediated by IL-2/Il-2 mAb immune complexes and also applies to a number of other cytokine/cytokine mAb complexes. Injecting these immune complexes can be used for cancer immunotherapy and also to expand T cells after bone marrow transplantation.

New Fellows Seminar

Professor Jenny Marshall Graves
Comparative genome analysis: Filling an evolutionary gap

Special election

Professor Robin Warren FRCPA Nobel Laureate
Helicobacter, active gastritis and duodenal ulcers

New Fellows

Dr Brian Boyle
Cosmic censuses

Professor Lorenzo Faraone
Infrared micro-spectrometer technologies for sensing applications in the chemical/biological, agriculture/food, biomedical and defence arenas

Professor David Hinde
Nuclear fusion forming the heaviest elements

Professor Andrew Holmes AM FRS
Seeing the light with polymers

Professor Roger Powell
A thermodynamic framework for modelling Earth processes

Professor Igor Shparlinski
Numbers at work and play

Professor Michelle Simmons
How to Observe Quantum Behaviour in Semiconductor Devices

Professor David Allen
Muscle damage caused by stretch: role in muscular dystrophy

Professor Mark Burgman
The role of science in conservation debates

Professor Barry Egan
Inside a bistable genetic switch

Professor Brian Kay
New approaches to control mosquito-borne disease

Professor Evan Simpson
Oestrogens – the good, the bad, and the unexpected

Professor Jonathan Sprent FRS
Boosting cytokine function with antibodies

Professor Susanne von Caemmerer
Relating chloroplast biochemistry to gas exchange of leaves: insights from transgenic plants