- Structure, function and biology of proteases and protease inhibitors
- Investigating the conjugation machinery of Gram positive pathogens
- Membrane attack complex / perforin-like proteins (MACPF) in immunity and developmental biology
Working to understand how the immune system destroys targets and leads to tissue remodelling, to develop therapeutics to control or target the immune response in inflammatory diseases and cancer.
Professor James Whisstock is a highly regarded research scientist with an extensive publication record. James is based at Monash University, where he is Deputy Dean Research in the Faculty of Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences. He currently holds an ARC Australian Laureate Fellowship and an Honorary National Health and Medical Research Council Senior Principal Research Fellowship.
Previously, James was the Scientific Director of the Australian Research Council Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging. He held an ARC Federation Fellowship, led the NHMRC Program Grant in Protease Systems Biology (2008-2012) and he was a chief investigator on the ARC Centre of Excellence in Structural and Functional Microbial Genomics (2005-2013). In 2006, he was awarded the Science Minister’s Prize for life science, in 2008 the Health Minister’s Award for Excellence in Health and Medical Research and in 2010 the Australian Academy of Science Gottschalk medal.
James completed his degree at Cambridge University. During his PhD (also at Cambridge), he trained in bioinformatics and in structural biology. He came to Australia as a research fellow at Monash University in January 1997, where he established his laboratory.
The Whisstock laboratory includes expertise in structural biology (including X-ray crystallography and electron microscopy), biochemistry, bioinformatics and molecular genetics. James and his team use these techniques to address questions in the fields of infection and immunity, blood coagulation, developmental biology and cancer.
Recent work from the Whisstock laboratory includes the structure of the fibrinolytic pro-enzyme plasminogen and a series of discoveries around the mechanism of pore formation by the mammalian immune effector perforin. Find more information about current projects here.
Read more about the Whisstock lab here.
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