Seth Masters

Inflammation Division

The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute

Dr Masters completed his PhD at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI), which resulted in the first structure of the SPRY/B30.2 domain. In 2006 Dr Masters started a postdoc with Dan Kastner at the NIH who previously discovered mutations in the SPRY/B30.2 domain of the protein Pyrin, which cause familial Mediterranean fever. During this postdoc he was part of a team that discovered a new inflammatory disease caused by mutations affecting the IL-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra). Starting in 2009, Dr Masters completed a second postdoc at Trinity College Dublin where he continued to work on IL-1. Research here showed that soluble oligomers of IAPP, which are increased in type 2 diabetes, trigger the NLRP3 inflammasome to process IL-1b, which impairs the function of insulin producing beta cells. Dr Masters has now started his own laboratory in the newly formed Inflammation Division at WEHI, and has published on miRNA regulation of the NLRP3 inflammasome and the first mouse models of NLRP1 inflammasome modulation. Seth has been on the ICIS Awards Committee since 2017.