Professor Tony Kenna

Biography

I am an immunologist with strong research intersts in autoimmune diseases. My research career has focused on human immunology and identification of novel therapeutic approaches for treatment of autoimmune diseases. My group focuses primarily on two diseases - ankylosing spondylitis (AS for short) and scleroderma. Both are highly heritable. This tells us that genetics plays an important role in how the diseases develop.

The genomics revolution of the couple of decades has greatly expanded understanding of genetics controls functions of our immune system, in health and disease. But we have a lot more work to do to understand how to convert our knowledge of genetics and immune function into new therapies. Working closely with leading human geneticists my research integrates world-first genomic data with cellular and molecular immunology to unravel the key drivers of disease in AS and scleroderma. Our work also enriches fundamental knowledge of human immunology.

My research lab is located at QUT's Centre for Immunology and Infection Control and consists of a small group of higher research degree students, professional and academic staff, working cohesively in a fun and challenging team.

We also have a keen interest in the interaction between the immune system and the microbiome. The microbiome is the collection of microbes that live in and on us. In recent years, researchers have come to understand that the microbiome has broad influences on our health and response to certain therapies. But the details of how our microbiome changes functions of our immune system remain poorly defined. We collaborate with our friends at colleagues at QUT's Centre for Microbiome Research to  address some fundamental questions in this research space.