Keynote speaker

Laura Mackay is a Professor and Immunology Theme Lead at The Peter Doherty Institute. She is a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) International Scholar, Dame Kate Campbell Fellow, Sylvia & Charles Viertel Senior Medical Research Fellow and NHMRC Leadership Investigator. She is a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and recipient of Awards including The Jian Zhou Medal, Frank Fenner Life Scientist of the Year, Gottschalk Medal, Woodward Medal, Eureka Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher, Michelson Prize and she is the Immediate Past President of The Federation of Immunological Societies of Asia-Oceania (FIMSA). Dr Mackay has been at the forefront of research on immunological memory and how T cells protect the body against disease. Her work was instrumental in the discovery that a subset of immune cells called tissue-resident memory T cells are critical for the control of infection and cancer. The focus of her laboratory is on the molecular signals that govern memory T cell differentiation, with a view to harness these cells for new immunotherapeutic strategies against disease.

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