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About

The focus of my lab is to understand how immune signals are interpreted by lymphocytes to generate protective immunity. To investigate this problem we take a quantitative approach, using computer models to describe and measure individual components of the immune response. This allows us to accurately measure the contribution of immune signals, or genetic variation on the effectiveness of the lymphocyte function. Conversely, we can use the same theory to investigate how therapeutic interventions can be applied to target individual pathways, or components of the model, that are defective in immune disorders.

Therefore, my laboratory has two arms. One is to apply models to study lymphocyte function as described above, while the second is to construct and test new models. We do this through a combination of quantitative in vitro analysis integrated with single cell imaging techniques both in vitro and in vivo.

Publications

Selected publications from A/Prof Edwin Hawkins

Isabella Y Kong, Joel S Rimes, Amanda Light, Izabela Todorovski, Sarah Jones, Eric Morand, Deborah A. Knight, Ylva E. Bergman, Simon J Hogg, Hendrik Falk, Brendon J. Monahan, Paul A. Stupple, Ian P. Street Susanne Heinzel, Philippe Bouillet, Ricky W Johnstone, Philip D Hodgkin, Stephin J Vervoort , and Edwin D Hawkins. Temporal Analysis of Brd4 Displacement in the Control of B Cell Survival, Proliferation, and Differentiation. Cell Reports. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.celrep.2020.108290

Kathryn S Potts, Alison Farley, Caleb A Dawson, Joel Rimes, Christine Biben, Carolyn de Graaf, Margaret A Potts, Olivia J Stonehouse, Amandine Carmagnac, Pradnya Gangatirkar, Emma C Josefsson, Casey Anttila, Daniela Amann-Zalcenstein, Shalin Naik, Warren S Alexander, Douglas J Hilton, Edwin D. Hawkins*, Samir Taoudi*. Membrane budding is a major mechanism of in vivo platelet biogenesis. Journal of Experimental Medicine. 2020. 10.1084/jem.20191206. *Joint senior authors

Samson AL, Zhang Y, Geoghegan ND, Gavin XJ, Davies KA, Mlodzianoski MJ, Whitehead LW, Frank D, Garnish SE, Fitzgibbon C, Hempel A, Young SN, Jacobsen AV, Cawthorne W, Petrie EJ, Faux MC, Shield-Artin K, Lalaoui N, Hildebrand JM, Silke J, Rogers KL, Lessene G, Hawkins ED*, Murphy JM*. MLKL trafficking and accumulation at the plasma membrane control the kinetics and threshold for necroptosis. Nat Commun. 2020 Jun 19;11(1):3151. PMID: 32561730 *Joint senior and corresponding authors

Dowling MR, Kan A, Heinzel S, Marchingo JM, Hodgkin PD, Hawkins ED. Regulatory T cells suppress effector T cell proliferation by limiting division destiny. Front Immunol. 2018 Oct 30;9:2461 PMID: 30425712

Duarte D*, Hawkins ED*, Lo Celso C. The interplay of leukaemia cells and the microenvironment. Blood. 2018 Apr 5;131(14):1507-1511 PMID: 29487069 * Equal authorship

Waibel M, Vervoort SJ, Kong IY, Heinzel S, Ramsbottom KM, Martin BP, Hawkins ED*, Johnstone RW*. Epigenetic targeting of Notch1 driven transcription using the HDACi panobinostat is a potential therapy against T cell acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Leukemia. 2018 Jan;32(1):237-241. PMID: 28914259 *Joint senior and corresponding authors

Hawkins ED*, Duarte D, Akinduro O, Khorshed RA, Passaro D, Nowicka M, Straszkowski L, Scott MK, Rothery S, Ruivo N, Foster K, Waibel M, Johnstone RW, Harrison SJ, Westerman DA, Quach H, Gribben J, Robinson MD, Purton LE, Bonnet D, Lo Celso C. T-cell acute leukaemia exhibits dynamic interactions with bone marrow microenvironments. Nature. 2016 Oct 27;538(7626):518-522. PMID: 27750279 *Corresponding author

Waibel, M, Christiansen, AJ, Hibbs, ML, Shortt, J, Jones, SA, Simpson, I, Light, A, O’Donnell, K, Morand, EF, Tarlinton, D, Johnstone, RW, Hawkins, ED. Manipulation of B cell responses with histone deacetylase inhibitors. Nature Communications 2015 Apr 27;6:6838. PMID: 25913720

Hawkins ED, Oliaro J, Kallies A, Belz GT, Filby A, Hogan T, Haynes N, Ramsbottom KM, Van Ham V, Kinwell T, Seddon B, Davies D, Tarlinton D, Lew AM, Humbert PO, Russell SM. Regulation of asymmetric cell division and polarity by Scribble is not required for humoral immunity. Nature Communications 2013.4, 1801 PMID: 24009041

Hagn M, Belz GT, Kallies A, Sutton VR, Thia KY, Tarlinton DM, Hawkins ED*, Trapani JA*. Activated mouse B cells lack expression of granzyme B. Journal of Immunology 2012.188, 3886-3892 PMID: 22427643 *Equal senior authorship and corresponding author.

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