Professorial Inaugural Lecture

Photo: Professor Natkunam Ketheesan

Photo: Professor Natkunam Ketheesan

Unravelling the Conundrum

Our Body’s Defence Against Tropical Infections

The Faculty of Medicine, Health and Molecular Sciences invites you to attend the Professorial Inaugural Lecture by Professor Natkunam Ketheesan, Chair in Infection and Immunity.

The School of Medicine Precinct

Building 45 Room 002

Wednesday, 12 September 2012 commencing at 5.30pm

Currently one-third of deaths globally are due to infections. Although in most countries in the tropical world, infectious diseases have a significant impact on human wellbeing and remain the number one cause of premature death; in Australia and other developed nations, these diseases have ceased to be a major cause of mortality. Professor Ketheesan will discuss our current understanding of how the body’s defence system protects us from infection. An understanding of how the cells and proteins of the immune system interact with each other during infection is important as it determines the disease outcome. Discovering how the immune system interacts with infectious agents at every stage of the disease process will enable future developments of rapid tests to identify infections, medicines to treat complications and vaccines to prevent infections. Professor Ketheesan will also speak about the research efforts of his team at James Cook University targeting some of these important issues.

All welcome and light refreshments will be served after the lecture.

RSVP by Thursday, 7 September 2012 to gemma.bauman@jcu.edu.au or 07 4781 4990