Department of Clinical Microbiology

Extra Seminar
Title:
Resolving the stage-specific contribution of the anti-apoptotic proteins to humoral immunity

Ingela Vikström

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute
Melbourne, Australia

Place: Betula, University Hospital, building 6 M

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Dr Ingela Vikström completed her PhD at the Dept. Med Biosciences, Umeå University in 2006. She then relocated to Melbourne Australia were she is currently a post doctoral fellow at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Some of her recent publications include:

Vikstrom I, Tarlinton DM. B cell memory and the role of apoptosis in its formation. Mol Immunol. 2011 48:1301-6.
Vikstrom I, Carotta S, Lüthje K, Peperzak V, Jost PJ, Glaser S, Busslinger M, Bouillet P, Strasser A, Nutt SL, Tarlinton DM. Mcl-1 is essential for germinal center formation and B cell memory. Science. 2010 330:1095-9
Carrington EM, Vikstrom IB, Light A, Sutherland RM, Londrigan SL, Mason KD, Huang DC, Lew AM, Tarlinton DM. BH3 mimetics antagonizing restricted prosurvival Bcl-2 proteins represent another class of selective immune modulatory drugs. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2010 107:10967-71.

Department of Clinical Microbiology
Extra Seminar
Title:
High-Throughput Screening in an Academic Setting, a Bona Fide Path to Novel Therapeutics and Tool Molecules?

Speaker:
Kurt Lackovic

Walter and Eliza Hall Institute Melbourne, Australia
Place: Betula, University Hospital, building 6 M


The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research was one of the first academic institutions in the world to establish a high-throughput screening facility. How this Facility operates, along with the format of projects, outcomes to date, examples of projects, and recent expansion to include high-content screening will be discussed.

 

Biography Paragraph:

Dr Kurt Lackovic completed his PhD in analytical chemistry in 2003. He then relocated to Sweden for his initial post doctoral placement, at the Department of Medical Biosciences, Umeå University, Sweden. Dr Lackovic returned to Melbourne in October 2006, immediately taking a position in the WEHI High-Throughput Chemical Screening (HTCS) Facility. In his current role, Dr Lackovic is responsible for managing collaborative research projects seeking lead-like molecules across a broad range of target classes and disease types, developing novel techniques, and reporting findings. In addition, he is responsible for the HTCS Facility's high-content imaging capabilities.

Recent publications include:
Croker et al. Fas-mediated neutrophil apoptosis is accelerated by Bid, Bak, and Bax and inhibited by Bcl-2 and Mcl-1. Proc Natl AcadSci U S A. 2011 108:13135-40.
Lackovic K, Parisot JP, Sleebs N, Baell JB, Debien L, Watson KG, Curtis JM,Handman E, Street IP, Kedzierski L. Inhibitors of Leishmania GDP-mannose pyrophosphorylase identified by high-throughput screening of small-molecule chemical library. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 2010 54:1712-9.