Professor of Systems Immunology
College of Medicine and Public Health
Since 2014, David is an European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) Australia Group Leader in the Infection and Immunity Theme at the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI). He also holds a joint faculty appointment as Associate Professor at the College of Medicine & Public Health, Flinders University. David heads a multi-disciplinary group that is equally divided between bioinformatics and experimental systems biology. On the wet-lab side, his group employs in vitro and in vivo experimental and clincial models coupled with systems biology approaches to investigate the interplay between the microbiome, vaccines and the immune system. On the bioinformatics side, his group leads the development of InnateDB.com, an internationally recognised systems biology platform for innate immunity networks and he also leads the computational biology aspects of €12 million European Commission funded project called PRIMES, which is investigating how to model and subsequently therapeutically target protein interaction networks in cancer.
His Group is currently supported by; EMBL Australia; The NHMRC; Cancer Australia and The Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Memorial Foundation. He has published ~70 papers in journals including Cell Host & Microbe, Cell Systems, Bioinformatics, Molecular Systems Biology, and Science and his publications have received more than 5000 citations. He has given invited talks on 6 continents.
2019 - Present: Professor, College of Medicine & Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia.
2019 - Present: Director, Computational & Systems Biology Program, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute.
2014 - Present: EMBL Australia Group Leader, Infection & Immunity Theme, South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute (SAHMRI), Adelaide, South Australia.
2014 - 2018: Associate Professor, College of Medicine & Public Health, Flinders University, Adelaide, South Australia.
2009 - 2014: Vision Appointment in Computational Biology. Group Leader, Systems Biology & Immunology Group, Teagasc Animal & Bioscience Research Department, Grange, Dunsany, Co. Meath, Ireland.
2012 - 2013: Adjunct Lecturer, School of Biochemistry & Immunology, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland.
2007 - 2009: Postdoctoral Research Associate, F.S.L. Brinkman Lab., Department of Molecular Biology & Biochemistry, Simon Fraser University, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
2007 - 2009: Honorary Research Associate, R.E.W. Hancock Lab., The Centre for Microbial Diseases & Immunity Research, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
2004 - 2006: Postdoctoral Fellow, D.G. Bradley Lab., Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
2002 - 2003: Postgraduate Certificate in Research Methods (Statistics), Department of Statistics, University College Dublin, Dublin 4, Ireland.
2001 - 2004: Ph.D. (Bioinformatics & Innate Immunology), C. O’Farrelly Lab., Department of Medicine, University College Dublin & The Education & Research Centre, St. Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin 4, Ireland.
2000 - 2001: Research M.Sc. Biology (Bioinformatics), D.A. Hickey Lab., Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
1996 - 2000: B.A. Natural Sciences - Moderatorship in Genetics, Smurfit Institute of Genetics, Trinity College Dublin, Dublin 2, Ireland.
2019-2021 NHMRC Project Grant (APP1156415). “How does the microbiota modulate vaccine responses in human infants: A systems vaccinology approach.”($858,033). Role: CIA.
2019-2023 EMBL Australia Group Leader Funding (SAHMRI/Flinders University). “Emergent Properties of Complex Systems”. Role: CIA.
2019-2019 Flinders University NHMRC Near Miss Funding Scheme. “Characterising the mechanisms through which early-life dysbiosis modulates B and T cell responses to vaccination.” ($25,000). Role: CIA.
2018 Australian Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Society Mid-Career Researcher Award.
2018 Australian Cancer Research Foundation. “ACRF Centre for Integrated Cancer Systems Biology.” ($2.5 million). Role: CI Leading computational & systems biology aspects.
2018-2018 The Flinders Foundation Health Seed Research Grant. “The role of the gut microbiota in the efficacy and toxicity of agonistic antibody cancer immunotherapies”($22,890). Role: CIA.
2018-2021 Medical Research Future Fund (APP1152268). “Using metagenomics and the Registry of Ageing South Australians to understand carriage and transmission of antimicrobial resistance in the elderly”. ($1,414,049.50). Role: CIG.
2018-2020 Cancer Australia Project Grant (APP1138766). "Novel co-extinction strategies for treatment of prostate cancer". ($596,409). Role: CIB.
2016-2018 NHMRC Project Grant (APP1098429). "The impact of the neonatal gut microbiome on specific and nonspecific vaccine responses". ($661,495.50). Role: CIA.
2016-2018 NHMRC Project Grant (APP1104281). "Blood serum microRNA biomarkers for oesophageal cancer". ($495,432.60). Role: CID.
2015-2017 The Garnett Passe and Rodney Williams Memorial Foundation. "Blood serum microRNA biomarkers for detection of oropharyngeal cancer". ($372,375). Role: CID.
2014-2016 Australian Hotels Association (SA) - Hotel Care Community Projects. Funding for High Performance Computing. ($150,000).
2014-2019 EMBL Australia Group Leader FundingRole: PI
2014-2014 NC3Rs (UK) CRACK IT Challenge 16. Virtual Infectious Disease Research. Phase I award (£84,561). “Modelling of the molecular interactions between host and pathogen” Role: Co-PI.
2011-2016 European Commission FP7-HEALTH-2011Project# 278568. "PRIMES: Protein interaction machines in oncogenic EGF receptor signalling." (Total award €11,999,640) Role: Co-PI.
SOCIETY MEMBERSHIP:
Member Australian Society of Immunology (ASI)
Member Australian Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Society (former executive committee member)
Member International Society for Computational Biology (ISCB)
Member American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).
COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT:
2017 Public Lecture, SAHMRI. Good and bad bugs in early life.
2016 Panel member, Australian Mathematical Sciences Institute, BioInfoSummer 2016
2016 Wall Street Journal filming in the lab for piece on the new Australian innovation economy.
2016 nel discussion at the Royal Australian College of Physicians Congress, Adelaide May 16 2016.
2016 Hosted 4 Year 11 students in my lab for the day to learn about immunology, microbiology and genomics.
2015 “Key to chronic disease later in life” half page article in The Advertiser newspaper profiling the lab’s work on the microbiome and its links to disease.
2015 The Totally Wild TV show (Season 23 Episode 49).
2015 Hosted 4 Year 11 students in my lab .
2015 Piece on Mix102.3 radio on “How Clean are the Mix102.3 Studios”
2014 Career Talk, Postgraduate Symposium, University of Adelaide, Australia. 24th July 2014.
CONFERENCE ORGANISATION:
2017 Chair of the organizing committee for the Australian Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Society annual conference.
2017 Session Chair. SA Vaccinology Update 2017. Adelaide. September 2017.
2014 Member of the organising committee & session chair (systems biology session) for the 2011 International Symposium on Animal Functional Genomics.
2012 Organized VIBE2012 (National meeting of Irish Bioinformatics Researchers).
GRANT REVIEWER:
2016 NHMRC GRP Panel Member – Genetics; Molecular Biology; Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Panel.
2015 Senior Clinical Fellowship Reviewer - Medical Research Council, UK.
2015 NHMRC Grant Reviewer - Australia.
2014 NHMRC GRP Panel Member – Genetics; Molecular Biology; Bioinformatics and Computational Biology Panel.
2012 Systems Immunology for the Human Life Course, Medical Research Council, UK.