Professor David Tarlinton | WEHI Representative
David is a BSc from the University of Sydney and PhD from Stanford University, supervised by Len and Lee Herzenberg. He was by post-doctoral fellow with Klaus Rajewsky in Cologne and Gus Nossal at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia. David was appointed Laboratory Head at WEHI in 1997, a position he held till 2016 when he was appointed Professor and Head of Department of Immunology at Monash University, located at the Alfred Hospital, a position he continues to hold. David has supported by fellowships and grants continuously from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) from 1997.
David has been President (2011-2012) of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Immunology (ASI), recipient of the Lupus Research Institute (USA) Distinguished Innovator Award (2013), of the Australian Museum Eureka Prize for Scientific Research (2014), the ASI Jacques Miller Senior Travel Award (2014) and is a Life Member of Clare Hall, University of Cambridge (2015). He has published over 190 research papers, reviews and commentaries, and supervised a number of PhD students and research fellows.
David’s research work throughout his career has focused on the development and differentiation of lymphocytes, particularly B cells during immune responses and autoimmune diseases. He has focussed recently on the formation and persistence of immune memory and on the mechanisms of cell differentiation and survival during and after immune challenges, results that have implications for vaccination, autoimmune diseases and cancer of immune cells.