Events

The University of Melbourne's Department of Microbiology and Immunology is hosting a special research seminar, chaired by Dr Oanh Nguyen, Senior Research Fellow at the Doherty Institute.

At this event, Associate Professor Paul Norman from Division of Biomedical Informatics & Personalized Medicine, School of Medicine, University of Colorado (USA) will present Evolution Modulates Human Natural Killer Cell Functions. 

About Associate Professor Paul Norman

The Norman lab studies the genetic and functional immune diversity of indigenous groups worldwide, including African hunter-gatherers, Australians and Pacific Islanders. They also study ancient humans, and perform comparative evolutionary analyses of multiple other species. The Lab focuses on the co-evolution of the HLA molecules and KIR, which are Natural Killer (NK) cell receptors that interact with HLA to control immune cell activity. Through population genetics and molecular analyses that inform functional experiments, the aim is to determine precisely how genetic variation can influence immunity and immune-mediated disease. Characterized by extreme sequence and structural diversity, these are the most complex, and amongst the most medically important, regions of the human genome. In addition to basic science, this work demonstrates strong commitment towards encompassing all human diversity in research, and can be translated directly to personalized treatment. A/Prof Norman did his postdoctoral training at Stanford, before becoming a Laboratory Head at the University of Colorado in 2018. He has over 110 publications including multiple high impact works, and almost 9,000 citations. Paul has been a Lymphoma Society Research Fellow, and currently holds numerous NIH and private funded grants.