Dr Judith Greer
Email: j.greer@uq.edu.au
Dr Judith Greer is a graduate of the University of Queensland
who completed her PhD on cancer immunology in the laboratory of
Prof Bill Halliday in 1991. She then undertook postdoctoral
training at Harvard Medical School in the USA, where, under the
tutelage of Prof Marjorie Lees, her interests shifted towards the
nervous system, particularly the neurochemical and immunological
properties of the most abundant protein of central nervous system
myelin, myelin proteolipid protein (PLP). Dr Greer was then awarded
the Elizabeth Albiez Research Fellowship from the National Multiple
Sclerosis Society of Australia to return to Australia and begin her
independent research career in the Neuroimmunology Research Unit of
the School of Medicine, working on the specificity of autoimmune
responses in multiple sclerosis. In 2008 she moved to the new UQ
Centre for Clinical Research to continue work on immune-mediated
disease in the nervous system.
Dr Greer is interested in research training, and since 2001 has
been the Postgraduate Coordinator for the Central Clinical Division
of the School of Medicine. She has also been closely involved with
the Australasian Society for Immunology for the last 12 years, and
developed and maintains websites for them (www.immunology.org.au) and
the Federation of Immunological Societies of Asia-Oceania (www.fimsa.org).
Research Projects
Dr Greer's research
focuses on diseases affecting the nervous system, particularly
those in which the immune response plays (or may play) a role. The
major focus of the lab is multiple sclerosis (MS). In particular,
the aims are to identify brain components that are targetted by the
immune system in people with MS, to determine how immune responses
within the nervous system relate to the symptoms experienced by
people with MS, and to develop new ways to specifically turn off
the damaging immune responses in the brain. Much of her work still
focuses on PLP. The work on MS is done in close collaboration with
the MS Clinic at the Royal Brisbane & Women's Hospital, which
is directed by Prof Michael Pender, and in collaboration with the
laboratory of peptide chemist Dr Elisabeth Trifilieff in
Strasbourg, France.
In collaboration with Assoc Prof Pamela McCombe, we are als
o investigating immune
activation after a person has had a stroke, and whether this
activation of the immune system is beneficial or harmful to the
patient.
In addition, in collaboration with Prof Bryan Mowry, we are
investigating whether some people with schizophrenia make an
autoimmune response directed against components of the
neurotransmitter receptors in the brain.
Techniques used in the laboratory include:
• In vitro culture of human and animal cells and testing in
immunological assays, including proliferation, cytokine secretion,
cell activation, flow cytometry, ELISA, ELISPOT
• Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis; in vivo assessment of
specific immunomodulatory agents
• Histological analysis of brain tissues, including
immunohistochemistry, confocal microscopy.
• Proteomic approaches to study brain proteins, including affinity
and size-exclusion chromatography, 1D & 2D gels, Western
blotting, protein purification
• Molecular Biological approaches including HLA typing, RT-PCR,
RNase protection assays, DNA sequencing
Key publications
Greer JM, Csurhes PA, Muller DM and Pender MP. 2008. Correlation
of blood T-cell and antibody reactivity to myelin proteins with HLA
type and lesion localization in multiple sclerosis. Journal of
Immunology. 180(9):6402-10.
Pfender NA, Grosch S, Roussel G, Koch M, Trifilieff E and Greer JM.
2008. The type of bond between lipid chain and peptide determines
the route of uptake of palmitoylated PLP encephalitogenic peptides
by antigen-presenting cells. Journal of Immunology.
180(3):1398-1404.
Yan J, Greer JM, Read SJ, Etherington K, Cadigan G, Cavanagh H,
Henderson RD, O'Sullivan JD, McCombe PA. 2009. Increased activated
T cells in patients after acute ischemic stroke. Journal of
Neuroimmunology 206(1-2):112-7.
Greer JM, Pender MP. 2005. The presence of glutamic acid at
positions 71 or 74 in pocket 4 of the HLA-DRbeta1 chain is
associated with the clinical course of multiple sclerosis. Journal
of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 76(5):656-62.
Greer JM, Denis B, Sobel RA, Trifilieff E. 2001. Thiopalmitoylation
of myelin proteolipid protein epitopes enhances immunogenicity and
encephalitogenicity. Journal of Immunology. 166(11):6907-13
Review:
Greer JM, Pender MP. 2008. Myelin proteolipid protein: An effective
autoantigen and target of autoimmunity in multiple sclerosis.
Journal of Autoimmunity 31(3):281-7.
Contact details and email
Dr Judith Greer
Contact: j.greer@uq.edu.au
Tel: (+61-7) 3346 6018
Group Members
Research Staff
• Dr Jun Yan - Senior Postdoctoral scientist
• Peter Csurhes - Senior Research
• Casey Pfluger - Research Assistant
• Kaye Hooper - Research Nurse
Research students and their research topics
• Evan (Leif) Sauer (PhD scholar): Study of potential therapuetic
agents in multiple sclerosis
• Diane Muller (PhD scholar): Neuropathological and
neuroimmunological studies of axial-rotatory experimental
autoimmune encephalomyelitis
• Amanda Jones (PhD scholar): Autoimmunity in schizophrenia
• Shannon Beasley (PhD scholar): The characterisation and response
of myelin specific antibodies from MS patients directed against
oligodendrocytes and their precursors
• Meng Tan (PhD scholar): Neuronal voltage-gated potassium channel
and voltage-gated sodium channel autoimmunity
• Nancy Moxey (PhD scholar): Study of myelin genes in MS.
Funding acknowledgement
Funding provided from
• NHMRC
• MS Research Australia
Collaborations
• Prof Michael Pender, School of Medicine, The University of
Queensland
• Dr Elisabeth Trifilieff, Universite Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg,
France
• Assoc Prof Pamela McCombe, UQ-CCR, The University of
Queensland
• Prof Bryan Mowry, Queensland Centre for Mental Health Research,
The University of Queensland
• Dr Robyn Wallace, Queensland Brain Institute, The University of
Queensland
