Kate Schroder

Institute for Molecular Bioscience
The University of Queensland

Brisbane, Australia

Kate Schroder’s research focuses on the interactions between host and pathogen during the initial stages of infection and the development of inflammation. She received her PhD in 2005 for studies investigating mechanisms of cross-talk between innate immune signalling pathways (interferon-gamma and Toll-like receptors), in the laboratory of David Hume. Her subsequent postdoctoral position with David Hume and Matthew Sweet investigated the transcriptional programs triggered by macrophage differentiation and Toll-like receptor ligation. A key focus of her postdoctoral studies was to define species differences in the TLR4-dependent responses of human versus mouse macrophages. During her NHMRC CJ Martin Fellow in Jurg Tschopp’s group in Switzerland, Kate gained expertise in Nod-like receptor function and inflammasome signalling. She returned to Australia in 2011, and now heads the Inflammasome Laboratory of the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, as an ARC Future Fellow. Her current research interests include mechanisms of signal integration between inflammasomes and other innate immune pathways (e.g. TLRs), the molecular mechanisms governing inflammasome and caspase activation, the evolutionary biology of inflammasomes, and the cellular mediators of inflammasome-dependent inflammation. The Inflammasome Laboratory integrates molecular and cell biology approaches with in vivo studies to gain a holistic understanding of inflammasome function during infection, and inflammasome dysfunction in human inflammatory disease.