Nicholas King Lorne Infection and Immunity 2018

Nicholas King

Nicholas King obtained his medical degree at the University of Capetown in 1976 and a PhD in microbiology at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, A.N.U. in 1986. He melds cell biology, virology, embryology and immunology in investigating flavivirus–host interactions in mouse and human models, where he has made seminal contributions over >25 years. He discovered that flaviviruses paradoxically upregulate MHC and adhesion molecules on infected cells, making them more visible to the immune system, proposing a novel immunological decoy theory to explain this and associated flaviviral immunopathology. His recent work has begun to elucidate the mechanisms of this paradox to explain how viruses might trigger auto-immune disease via these immunopathological events and is currently developing novel interventions in viral encephalitis and other macrophage-based immune diseases using nanoparticle approaches to target specific pathological cell subsets. He is Professor and Head of the Discipline of Pathology, Director of the New South Wales Advanced Cytometry Facility and a member of the Executive Leadership Group of The Bosch Institute, heading the Infection, Immunity and Inflammation Theme. He is past Immediate President the Federation of Immunological Societies of Asia-Oceania (FIMSA) and as Treasurer for the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) is a member of the Executive Council of IUIS. He has published widely, attracting in the last 10 years, solely or collaboratively, more than AU$13.6M in competitive grant funding. Since 1988, he has held an academic position at the University of Sydney, with full teaching and administrative commitments. In this time, he has graduated 40 Research Honours, 2 Masters and 20 PhD students as principal supervisor. In 2002, he was awarded one of only three Vice Chancellor’s Excellence in Teaching Awards. In 2009 he was awarded honorary membership of the Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia. He currently supervises 1 Hons and 7 PhD students.