Dr Thomas P. J. Garrett,Special Fellow, Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for Medical Research.
Brief CV: Dr Tom Garrett is a Laboratory Head and founding member of the Division of Structural Biology at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and his research is focussed on receptor biology and cell signalling. After completing his PhD he spent his postdoctoral years at Harvard University determining structures of two receptors of the human immune system, the transplantation antigen, HLA-A68, and CD4, a receptor for the AIDS virus. Upon returning to Australia in 1992 he received a Queen Elizabeth II Fellowship to study FcgRII, a receptor which links antibody recognition with cellular immune functions. More recently Dr Garrett has worked on growth factors and cancer, first in Biomolecular Research Institute and CSIRO and now at the WEHI. He has determined structures of extracellular fragments of Insulin Receptor, Insulin-like Growth Factor Receptor and Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor. The latter two are major targets for design of cancer drugs.
Brief summary of expertise and significant research achievements:
Many of Dr Garretts's receptor structures were the first of their type and
have significantly increased our understanding receptor signalling.
The structure of HLA helped explained the basis for antigen selection and
presentation to the cellular immune system. This is the flag defining when
cells are infected with, say, a virus. Dr Garrett's recent work of growth
factor receptors has shown a new way in which receptors can signal, with
the ligand-binding initiating a large structural change in the receptor.
This reveals a dimerisation site in another part of the molecule which can
then be used to form a signalling complex. Crystallography forms the
basis for this work and each structure has been used to initiate a drug
design program.
Dr Garrett also has considerable expertise in protein engineering. He has designed a thermostable Barley enzyme for the brewing industry and determined the structures of two ScFv's, mini antibody-like molecules used in tumour targeting and therapy. He has been an Australian delegate for the International Network of Protein Engineering Centres
Students and postdocs likely to be involved in or use
the Network:
Dr Trevor Huyton
Relevant grants:
| Application for 2005 | ARC Discovery, Monolayer Crystallisation of Membrane Proteins, Chief Investigators: B.D. Hankamer, T.P.J. Garrett, R.P. McGeary |
| 2004-2008 | NHMRC Program Grant, Colon Cancer: Receptors, Signalling and Therapeutics, Chief Investigator with A.W. Burgess, R.J. Simpson, T.P.J. Garrett, A.M. Scott, $6,688,000. |
| 2002-2005 | Wellcome Equipment Grant, Investigator : P. Colman, T Garrett, J. Adams B. Crabb A. Burgess$894,911 |
| 1999-2005 | Member of the Cooperative Research Centre for Cellular Growth Factors. |
