Professor Nicole La Gruta

Professor Nicole La Gruta is Head of the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and leads the T cell development and function laboratory at Monash University.

Professor La Gruta is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow, whose program of research focuses on deepening our understanding of the fundamental determinants of effective T cell immunity, aging related immune decline, and T cell mediated autoimmunity. Professor La Gruta completed her PhD at Monash University, studying T cell mediated initiation of autoimmune disease. She then undertook postdoctoral studies with Dr Dario Vignali at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital, in Memphis, Tennessee, where she studied early signaling events in T cells. Upon her return to Melbourne in 2002, she joined the laboratory of Laureate Professor Peter Doherty at the University of Melbourne in 2002 where she studied the key drivers of antiviral T cell immunity.

Professor La Gruta established her independent research program in 2007 and was recruited to the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Monash University, in 2016. Over the course of her career, she has been the recipient of multiple prestigious fellowships, including the Sylvia and Charles Viertel Senior Medical Research Fellowship, an ARC Future Fellowship, and most recently the Monash University Maureen Brunt Award. Her laboratory continues to engage in a comprehensive program of discovery, clinical and industry-based research.