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Congrats Wael, Jia Jia and Jamie on securing NHMRC Investigator Grants

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Monash BDI researchers secure more than $18M in NHMRC Investigator Grants

Nine researchers from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI) have secured more than $18 million in funding through the National Health and Medical Research Council’s (NHMRC) 2026 Investigator Grant scheme, announced by Federal Minister for Health and Ageing, Mark Butler.

 

Monash BDI’s NHMRC Investigator Grants 2026 recipients: Prof Mary Herbert, Prof Jamie Rossjohn, Prof Andrew Ellisdon, A/Prof Rhys Grinter, Prof Francine Marques, Dr Wael Awad,  Dr Lauren Alesi, Dr Meiling Han, Dr Jia Jia Lim.

Professor Dena Lyras, Interim Director of the Monash BDI, said the funding highlights the strength and diversity of the Institute’s research community.

“These Investigator Grants support some of Australia’s most innovative and ambitious biomedical research programs, and I’m delighted to see nine Monash BDI researchers recognised through this highly competitive scheme,” Professor Lyras said.

“The funded projects span a remarkable breadth of research, from reproductive health and cardiovascular disease to cancer immunotherapy, antimicrobial resistance and AI-enabled drug discovery. Together, they have the potential to deliver important advances in our understanding of disease and contribute to the development of new treatments that improve health outcomes,” she said.

“This funding will enable our researchers to pursue bold ideas and address some of the most significant health challenges facing Australia and the global community. I congratulate all of our Investigator Grant recipients on this achievement and acknowledge the significant effort that goes into developing applications for such a competitive funding scheme.”

The nine Monash BDI projects are among 26 projects awarded more than $49 million in funding to Monash Medicine Nursing and Health Sciences (MNHS) researchers in the latest NHMRC Investigator Grants. Read more on each of the MNHS recipients here.

The Rossjohn lab researchers to receive funding were:

Professor Jamie Rossjohn FAA FRS, A molecular investigation into T cell antigen receptor function and dysfunction in humans

T cells play a key role in the human immune system. However, there are many aspects of T cell mediated immunity we do not understand. This proposal is focused on understanding the molecular mechanisms underpinning how T cell antigen receptor (TCR) recognition events govern cellular immunity in the context of protective, aberrant and anti-tumour immunity. This includes understanding how TCRs recognise peptides, lipids and metabolites presented by the MHC, CD1 and MR1 family of antigen presenting molecules.

Emerging Leadership 2

Dr Wael Awad, Harnessing Cancer-Activated Invariant T cells for next-generation cancer immunotherapy

A newly discovered cancer-fighting immune cell could pave the way for next-generation immunotherapies that work across a wide range of tumour types. This project focuses on cancer-associated invariant T (CAIT) cells, which recognise cancer-related metabolic signals presented by the molecule MR1. Using structural biology, biochemistry and immunology, this project aims to identify the tumour metabolites that activate these cells and develop novel MR1-based therapies. The findings could reveal universal cancer targets and support the creation of broadly applicable immunotherapies and vaccines for cancer treatment and prevention.

Emerging Leadership 1

Dr Jia Jia Lim, Targeting CD1a-restricted T cells for molecular intervention in skin autoimmunity  

New insights into how the skin’s immune system responds to altered lipids, with the goal of  developing more targeted treatments for inflammatory skin diseases. This project focuses on CD1a, an immune molecule that presents lipid antigens to T cells and can trigger harmful immune responses when skin lipids are altered by factors such as UV exposure or cosmetic products. Using structural biology and immunology, the research will uncover how altered lipids activate pathogenic T cells and explore ways to block these interactions, providing a foundation for improved therapies for psoriasis, eczema and allergic contact dermatitis.

Original article

Congratulations, Jamie on your appointment as Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor!

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Inaugural cohort of Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Professors

Monash University has established the Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Professorships, a distinguished title that will be conferred to senior Monash University professors across our International Campus Network who are of sustained international pre-eminence in research or education within their discipline.

Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Professorships (VCDP) will be conferred annually through a nomination process that will be overseen by the Provost and Senior Vice-President, who will receive nominations from deputy vice-chancellors, faculty deans and heads of international campuses and locations.

First cohort of Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Professors

Monash University congratulates the first cohort of Monash University professors to be conferred the title of Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor, commencing today (Monday 1 June 2026):

These recipients embody the excellence that Monash University has come to be recognised for nationally and globally over the years. As researchers, they consistently achieve pioneering breakthroughs and discoveries in their fields, many of which are translated into innovations that change and save lives. As educators, they empower our students and graduates to be the leaders, entrepreneurs and innovators who will build and shape our future. Their work transcends generations, creating social and technological transformation at a global scale.

We look forward to the many accomplishments they will continue to achieve at Monash in their respective fields as the inaugural holders of the Vice-Chancellor’s Distinguished Professor title. We also look forward to future nominations for this prestigious title in later nomination rounds.

Original article

Professor Jamie Rossjohn honoured with prestigious international award

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Leading researcher Professor Jamie Rossjohn from the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute has been selected to receive the Ceppellini Award 2024 in memory of Ruggero Ceppellini, one of the pioneers in the field of immunogenetics. The prestigious lifetime achievement award was presented at the 37th EFI Conference in Geneva, Switzerland on 20 May 2024.

As the awardee, Professor Rossjohn was also invited to present his work in the form of the Ceppellini Lecture during the conference’s opening ceremony. His lecture was on the topic of T cell immunity, specifically interactions mediated by the T cell receptor.

Professor Rossjohn received the Ceppellini Award for his significant contribution to understanding defined events central to cellular immunity. His research in T cell immunity has provided an understanding of the molecular basis of peptide, lipid and small molecule presentation – both in the context of infectious disease and unwanted immunity, as occurs in autoimmune disorders such as rheumatoid arthritis and in drug and food hypersensitivities such as Celiac Disease. Professor Rossjohn is the 35th recipient of the award, which he accepted from Dr. Ann-Margaret Little, President of the European Federation for Immunogenetics.

Professor Jamie Rossjohn receiving the Ceppellini award

Professor Jamie Rossjohn receiving the Ceppellini award

Professor Rossjohn is currently a National Health and Medical Research (NHMRC) Investigator Fellow at Monash University, was a recent Australian Research Council Laureate Fellow from 2017-21 and has been recognised as a Clarivate Web of Science Highly Cited Researcher from 2018-2023.  In 2022, Jamie was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society (UK), a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences in 2017 and a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2014.

Professor Rossjohn said that it was an honour to receive the Ceppellini Award.  “It came as a bit of a shock to me, and my close companion, Ziggy, to be recognised in this manner, as some very heavy hitters have come before me in receiving the Ceppellini Award, “ he said. “It’s a testament to our sustained research in this area for the last 20-plus years, and of the collaborations, research fellows and students who have worked alongside me. These findings would not have been possible without funding from the NHMRC and ARC, and most importantly, the  ‘think big’ research environment that Monash fosters.”

Find out more about Professor Jamie Rossjohn’s research.

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Congrats Jamie on your Visiting Professor appointment at the University of Oxford

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Welcome to the new RDM Visiting Professors

RDM warmly welcomes two new Visiting Professors this term:

  • Jamie Rossjohn joins the department as Visiting Professor of Structural Immunology, and
  • Martin Young joins as Visiting Professor of Cardiac Science.

Professor Rossjohn travelled over the border from Wales to undertake his undergraduate degree and PhD at Bath University. After pursuing his PhD where he was exposed to the world of X-ray crystallography, he was awarded a Royal Society Fellowship (1995) to work at St. Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research (SVIMR), Melbourne, Australia where he explored detoxifying enzymes and studied bacterial toxins like aerolysin and perfringolysin O (PFO); his work on PFO revealed the molecular mechanism of these toxins. In 2002, Prof Rossjohn moved to Monash University, establishing the Protein Crystallography Unit, which has grown to include over 100 researchers. He played a key role in designing and establishing a fully-automated crystallisation facility.

As a laboratory head and current NHMRC Investigator Fellow, Prof Rossjohn’s research is centred on understanding immunity. He has used structural biology to explain pre-T-cell receptor (TCR) self-association in T-cell development, and how the TCR specifically recognises polymorphic human leukocyte antigen (HLA) molecules in the context of viral immunity and aberrant T-cell reactivity. He has unearthed structural mechanisms of HLA polymorphism impacting on drug and food hypersensitivities, as well as Natural Killer cell receptor recognition. He has pioneered the molecular understanding of lipid-based immunity by T cells, revealing that it can differ fundamentally from peptide-mediated adaptive immunity.

Recently, he has provided a structural basis of how vitamin B metabolites can be presented and recognised by the immune system, revealing a new class of antigen. Collectively, he has published > 500 papers and mentored numerous researchers towards obtaining higher degrees and nationally competitive fellowships.

His multidisciplinary approach, supported by a broad network of collaborators has led to a fundamental advancement of knowledge in this field and his research leadership has been recognised by numerous national and international awards. In 2022, Prof Rossjohn was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society and Associate Member of EMBO.

Professor Young received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees, and DPhil in Biochemistry at Oxford (Oriel College and Green College). Following postdoctoral training at Boston University and the University of Texas-Houston, he held faculty appointments at the University of Texas-Houston and Baylor College of Medicine, before joining the University of Alabama at Birmingham in 2009 where he is currently a Professor of Medicine and the Jeanne V. Marks Endowed Chair of Cardiovascular Disease.

Research in Prof Young’s laboratory is focused on understanding how environmental factors, such as time-of-day and nutrition, influence cardiometabolic and cardiovascular health. Regarding time-of-day, the laboratory has been actively exploring how an intrinsic time-keeping mechanism, known as the circadian clock, influences cardiac function. His pioneering studies have resulted in a new field, which intersects chronobiology with cardiovascular research.

In addition to his research success, Prof Young has remained firmly committed to training future generations of both physicians and scientists. This has been achieved, in part, through directing both medical school courses, as well as postdoctoral training programmes. As a Visiting Professor of Cardiac Science at RDM, Prof Young will lend his unique expertise in cardiovascular disease and circadian biology to augment both ongoing and nascent research programmes, as well as facilitate the training of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

 

Original article

Congrats Jamie: Highly Cited researcher again!

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Congratulations to Jamie who is again on the Highly Cited Researchers 2021 list of the world’s most Highly Cited Scientists, which is published annually by Clarivate Analytics.

From Clarivate: Recognising the true pioneers in their fields over the last decade, demonstrated by the production of multiple highly-cited papers that rank in the top 1% by citations for field and year in the Web of Science™. Of the world’s scientists and social scientists, Highly Cited Researchers truly are one in 1,000.

Original article