Professor Rod Dunbar

 Professor Rod Dunbar holds both a medical degree (MBChB) and a PhD from the University of Otago in New Zealand. He spent 6 years as a post-doctoral research fellow in human immunology at the University of Oxford, before returning to New Zealand in 2002 under a Wellcome Trust International Senior Research Fellowship. In 2008 he was appointed the Director of the Maurice Wilkins Centre, a national Centre of Research Excellence that promotes a multi-disciplinary approach to the discovery of new medicines and vaccines. Since 2009 he has also co-directed a programme within the University of Auckland to accelerate its research related to human therapeutics (the Biopharma Thematic Research Initiative).

Rod’s lab has a primary focus on human cellular immunology, especially understanding how T cell responses to tumours arise and how these T cell responses can be stimulated in cancer therapy. The lab has particular expertise in the use of flow cytometry and immunofluorescence microscopy to study T cells and antigen-presenting cells in human tissues, and in analysing the function of these cells in primary cell culture models. These techniques are also employed by the lab to characterise mesenchymal stem cells in human tissues, and examine their role in human disease and their potential in cell therapy and tissue engineering. Rod’s lab interacts with a wide collaborative network with particular strengths in organic and medicinal chemistry, tissue imaging, and computer modelling.