ANU scientist receives prestigious fellowship to design immunotherapies

Associate Professor Di Yu, an immunologist, has been awarded a prestigious fellowship for the next generation of scientists.

The $1.225 million grant from the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation is to study how the immune system works and to design new immunotherapies to treat cancers and infections.

Treating cancer used to be all about three pillars of treatment: surgery, radiation and chemotherapy.

But it's the emerging fourth pillar, immunotherapy, that many scientists see as the the greatest hope of a cure.

Dr Yu's research specifically looks at T lymphocytes and how to create a "balanced" immune system.

While it may seem a lofty dream, he thinks a cure for cancer and HIV is a real possibility.

"A balanced immune system is the holy grail of this research," he said.

Dr Yu said while there are a lot of treatments for cancer and various infections like HIV many are not ideal.

But by "tuning" the immune system he says the body can fight the cancer and other diseases itself.

"Through understanding the mechanisms we can improve the treatments and hopefully we can cure cancer and cure HIV," Dr Yu said.

"As we know this is a long shot but we have showed some success with lupus already."

Dr Yu said the biggest advancements in immunology currently were around cancer.

He said it was emerging as the "fourth pillar" of treatment and within five to ten years would likely be the major form of treatment.

"I don't think it is a replacement of radiation or chemotherapy but once it becomes dominant almost all cancer patients will be treated with it," Dr Yu said.

He said he felt honoured to be awarded the fellowship, which was a career goal for him,

"With the strong financial support from this Fellowship and the ANU Futures Scheme, my team will address some of the most fundamental questions about the immune system and will design new therapies for infections and a range of diseases," he said.

For Dr Yu, his interest in immunology lies in his ongoing fascination with the human body and how various cells interact.

But it is the knowledge he is changing lives that is most rewarding.

I"m not trained in a medical background I'm a pure science student, but I like to hear about when I have clinical trials and the say 'we have a patient responsive for this'," he said.

His most rewarding moment was finding out a patient on the new lupus therapy was able to get pregnant and have a baby.

"That moment I had a lot of excitement about immunotherapy because what we are doing is changing people's lives," he said.

Acting ANU Vice-Chancellor Professor Margaret Harding welcomed the announcement of Dr Yu's fellowship.

"On behalf of the University, I congratulate Di on this fantastic achievement," Professor Harding said.

"His team's work is a great example of the research being done at ANU, which seeks to solve some of the biggest problems facing the world."