Original announcement – click here
Hudson Institute’s world leading inflammation programs enter a new era with the appointment of Professor Seth Masters to head the Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases (CiiiD). Dr. Masters has been an active member of ICIS since 2008. He served on the ICIS Awards Committee from 2015 – 2021 and won the Milstein Young Investigator Award in 2014. The position he’s taking up was previously held by Brendan Jenkins, and before him ICIS Council member Paul Hertzog who established this Centre in 2000 and grew it over 21 years into a rich environment for cytokine and interferon research with 12 labs and over 120 people. “The CiiiD has a long history with ICIS and its predecessors -providing many office-bearers and prize-winners, while also benefiting from the environment provided by ICIS as a forum to present our work and generate strategic collaborations. I recruited Brendan, Ash Mansell and many others and we have hosted notable sabbatical visitors including Luke O’Neill and Simon Jones… I handed over to Brendan in 2022 but alas only for just over a year before he received this wonderful offer from Adelaide. Seth’s is an outstanding appointment and will continue the strong alignment of our research Centre with the Society”, writes Paul Hertzog.
We all look forward to ongoing interactions between ICIS and members of the Centre at the Hudson Institute! Congratulations Dr. Masters!
Outstanding leadership in inflammatory diseasesAn expert in genetic disorders that trigger inflammatory diseases, Prof Masters has spent the past 12 years as Head of the Inflammasomes and Autoinflammatory Disease Laboratory at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI).
Professor Masters said he is delighted to be taking on a leadership position on 5 February 2024 among Australia’s largest collection of researchers dedicated to advancing our understanding of inflammation and developing new treatments for inflammatory diseases.
“The more we look at inflammation generated by the innate immune system, the more apparent it is how many conditions are affected by this process,” he said.
“So I am excited by the opportunity to further expand inflammation research with the team at CiiiD into areas where it can have the greatest effect,” said Professor Masters.
Professor Masters’ achievements and affiliations include a joint appointment at the Guangzhou Women’s and Children’s Hospital (China), as well as being a Fellow of the HHMI-Wellcome Trust, the Viertel Foundation and the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC).
He completed his BSc (Hons) and PhD at the University of Melbourne and more recently took on roles as VP of Discovery Biology at NRG Therapeutics and as a Scientific Advisor for Odyssey Therapeutics.
Current projects underway in his lab at WEHI Include
- Novel innate immune pathways in patients with autoinflammatory disease
- Australian Autoinflammatory Disease Registry
- Physiological roles of the inflammasome during disease.
Exceptional experience and research program
Hudson Institute’s Director and CEO, Professor Elizabeth Hartland welcomed the appointment, saying Professor Masters would bring a wealth of experience in the field, as well as a range of fresh ideas to his work as the new head for the Centre for Innate Immunity and Infectious Diseases (CiiiD).
“We are thrilled that Prof Masters is bringing his exceptional research program and leadership to Hudson Institute. Prof Masters will bring us a big step closer to the goal of helping patients with unexplained and damaging inflammation,” said Professor Hartland.