معرفی
Dr Wael Awad is a Research Fellow at the Biomedicine Discovery Institute (BDI), Monash University, holding an Australian Research Council DECRA Fellowship (2022-2024). He completed his M.Sc. at Cairo University and earned a PhD from Lund University (Sweden), studying glypican membrane-anchored proteins. His expertise includes protein biochemistry, structural biology, and cellular immunology. He has published in high-impact journals such as Science, Nature Immunology, and PNAS, and his work focuses on metabolite-mediated immunity via MR1-restricted T cells, particularly MAIT cells.
Research Interests: Investigating MR1’s role in presenting microbial metabolites to MAIT cells, exploring cellular machinery regulating MR1-metabolite processing, and understanding T cell recognition mechanisms. His team employs X-ray crystallography, Surface Plasmon Resonance (SPR), and advanced imaging techniques to study structural and functional aspects of these interactions.
Awards: Recipient of the MAX IV Synchrotron Best PhD Thesis Award (2015), IUCr Young Scientist Award (2018), and multiple early-career research prizes. Active in public engagement, including immunology exhibitions and science outreach events.
Supervision: Accepts PhD, Honours, and Master’s students with backgrounds in Biochemistry, Molecular Biology, or Structural Biology. Current projects focus on discovering novel microbial antigens, exploring non-microbial metabolite antigens, and understanding MR1-restricted T cell diversity.
Labs/Teams: Leads a research group within the Rossjohn Lab at Monash University, collaborating internationally in structural immunology and metabolite antigen research.
