معرفی
Colby Zaph is a Professor and Head of the Laboratory of Mucosal Immunity and Inflammation at Monash University's Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology. He leads the Infection and Immunity Program within the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute. His academic career includes a B.Sc. (Honours) in Biochemistry from the University of Saskatchewan (1995), a Ph.D. from the University of Pennsylvania (2004), and postdoctoral training there under David Artis, focusing on mucosal immunity mechanisms.
Zaph's research interests center on immune regulation at mucosal sites, particularly the molecular mechanisms governing innate and adaptive immunity. Key contributions include defining parasite persistence's role in T cell memory, intestinal epithelial cell licensing of immune responses, and epigenetic control via lysine methylation (e.g., G9a and SETD7). His work also explores protein localization signaling pathways and their impact on immune homeostasis.
Notable projects include investigating chromatin dynamics in 3D (2023–2026), ovalbumin-specific iTreg therapies for IBD (2022), and SETD7's role in Wnt/YAP signaling (2016–2018). His research spans immunology, inflammation, infection, and epigenetic regulation, with implications for inflammatory bowel diseases and parasitic infections.
Zaph has published over 70 peer-reviewed articles, with recent work emphasizing tissue-resident immune cells' plasticity, cytokine networks in T follicular helper cells, and epigenetic modifiers' roles in immune function. His lab actively collaborates internationally to advance understanding of mucosal immunity, inflammation, and translational therapies for immune-mediated disorders.
