Professor Sharon Lewin

MIIN Executive Member

Infectious Diseases Unit
Alfred Hospital
+61390768491
s.lewin@alfred.org.au

Research Activities:

Immunopathogenesis of HIV, hepatitis B virus and HIV-HBV co-infection
Main focus of work in HIV is the mechanism of CD4+ T-cell depletion and the role of naïve and memory CD4+ T-cells in long term HIV persistence
In HBV, the main work is in understanding the adaptive immune response to HBV and in the setting of HIV-HBV co-infection

Techniques/Expertise:

HIV viral culture, quantification, infection
Thymus explant cultures
Multiparameter flow cytometry including high speed cell sorting
Real-time PCR
Expansion of intra-hepatic T-cells
Establishing and maintaining prospective clinical cohorts

Collaborations:

Majority of the HIV-related work is part of an NHMRC program grant with Professors Wesselingh, Crowe, Cunningham (Millenium Research Institute, Sydney), Brew (University of New South Wales, Sydney) and Slobedman (Millenium Research Institute, Sydney)

Stephen Locarnini (Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory), Kumar Visvanathan (Monash Medical Centre), Greg Dore (University of New South Wales, Sydney), George Lau (Hong Kong) and Kiat Ruxrungtham (Bangkok) for all HBV-related work

Lab Group Personnel:

Paul Cameron (senior scientist, Clinical immunologist)
Miranda Xhilaga (senior scientist)
Suha Saleh (post-doctoral fellow)
Alyssa Cornall (post-doctoral fellow)
Ajantha Solomon (lab manager and RA)
Fiona Wightman (RA)
Gabriella Khoury (RA)
Joel van der Muelen (RA)
Judy Chang, David Iser, Vanessa Evans, Chris Desmond, Reena Rajasuriar (PhD students)