Researcher

Professor Christopher Carl Goodnow

Keywords

Fields of Research (FoR)

Genetic Immunology, Genomics

SEO tags

Biography

Professor Chris Goodnow FAA FRS is Executive Director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, holds The Bill and Patricia Ritchie Foundation Chair as Head of the Immunogenomics Laboratory at Garvan, and is Professor and Director of the Cellular Genomics Futures Institute at UNSW Sydney. Chris trained in veterinary medicine and surgery, immunochemistry, and immunology at the University of Sydney and in DNA technology and molecular...view more

Professor Chris Goodnow FAA FRS is Executive Director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, holds The Bill and Patricia Ritchie Foundation Chair as Head of the Immunogenomics Laboratory at Garvan, and is Professor and Director of the Cellular Genomics Futures Institute at UNSW Sydney. Chris trained in veterinary medicine and surgery, immunochemistry, and immunology at the University of Sydney and in DNA technology and molecular immunology at Stanford University. Chris is internationally recognised for discovering and establishing the concept of sequential tolerance checkpoints to prevent the immune system attacking “self” while fighting off “foreign” infections, laying the scientific foundation for the recent success of checkpoint inhibitor drugs to activate immune destruction of “self” cancer cells. He pioneered the use of mammalian genome sequencing to reveal how the body’s phenotype results from its’ genotype – “phenomics”. Most recently his team have used single cell genomics to discover that rogue immune cells bypass tolerance checkpoints to cause autoimmune disease through mutation pathways that also cause lymphoma and leukemia. Chris’ many awards include the AAI Pharmingen Award, Gottschalk Medal, Health Minister’s Prize, Centenary Medal, Ramaciotti Medal, GSK Award for Research Excellence, William E. Paul Award, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, Fellow of the Royal Society, and Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.


My Qualifications

BVSc Hons 1; BSc(Vet) Hons 1 & University Medal; PhD


My Awards

1984

Honours Class I with B.V.Sc. degree;
Honours Class I and University Medal with B.Sc.(Vet) degree

1986

NH & MRC Biomedical Research Scholarship

1989

Medical Foundation Postdoctoral Fellowship

1990

Investigator of the Howard Hughes Medical Institute

1992

Searle Scholar

1998

American Association of Immunologists Pharmingen Investigator Award

2001

Gottschalk Medal, Australian Academy of Science

2002

Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science

2005

Health Minister’s Prize for Excellence in Medical Research

2005

ISI Highly Cited Researcher

2006

Centenary Medal

2006

ARC Federation Fellow

2007

Ramaciotti Major Research Award

2009

Fellow of the Royal Society

2010

NHMRC Australia Fellow

2010

The Ramaciotti Medal

2012

Glaxo-Smith-Kline Award for Research Excellence

2013

Member of the US National Academy of Science

2018

William E Paul Memorial Award, The Foundation for Primary Immune Diseases.


My Research Supervision


Areas of supervision

Project: Using genomic technology to study the rogue cells that cause autoimmune disease

Discipline: Immunology

Project level: PhD/Honours

Supervisor: Prof Chris Goodnow & Dr Joanne Reed

Project commencement: Variable

Summary: Autoimmune disease occurs when immune cells "go rogue" and attack healthy parts of the body, instead of attacking infectious microbes. There are over 100 different autoimmune diseases, which affects 5-10% of the population and are a major cause of chronic disease in our society. Without a cure, individuals afflicted by these diseases face ongoing clinical care based on suppressing the whole immune system. Current clinical practice treats the symptoms of disease rather than the cause because we don't have a way to identify and eradicate the individual cells of the immune system that have gone rogue. Our group has developed innovative cellular genomics technology incorporating single cell sequencing and multi-parameter flow cytometry to identify and isolate rogue B cells from patients with the autoimmune diseases Sjogren's syndrome and lupus. This research has uncovered therapeutic targets and allowed us to trace the evolution of these disease causing cells.

We are currently recruiting enthusiastic students who are interested in using cutting-edge genomic technology to learn about fundamental mechanisms of the immune system and impact treatment strategies and outcomes in patients with autoimmune diseases.

Contact: Dr Joanne Reed at j.reed@garvan.org.au

View less

Location

Garvan Institute of Medical Research
384 Victoria Street
Darlinghurst NSW 2010

Map reference (Google map)

Contact

+61 2 9295 8120