Naranbhai Group

Laboratory of Translational Immunology

Research overview

The Naranbhai group Laboratory of Translational Immunology works across disciplines to discover and translate immunologic insights in malignant, infectious and other diseases.

Our vision is to discover novel and clinically relevant pathways to identify new therapeutic targets, and make new medicines. Building on our strengths in innate and adaptive immunity, immunogenomics, infectious diseases, and cancer research, together with our collective skills in bioinformatics and clinical trials, we aim to tackle current and emerging health challenges.

We’re excited to be founder occupants of the Paula Fox Melanoma and Cancer Center in 2024!

Group leader

The group

• Vivek Naranbhai - Laboratory Head, Medical oncologist
• Christina Chang - Infectious Diseases physician; scientific collaborator
• Rutendo Mapengo - Lab Manager and Staff scientist
• Matthew Savage, Joyce Hung - incoming students

We have open positions for two postdoctoral fellows.
We have an open position for a research assistant.

Publication highlights

1. My early publications focused on understanding the immune correlates of HIV acquisition in women. In a series of papers, we found that immune activation was associated with HIV acquisition. This work was performed in the context of a clinical trial of antiviral drugs called tenofovir which we formulated as a gel. During this time I was deputy director of vaccine and pathogenesis at CAPRISA, and orchestrated a range of viral, immune and pharmacologic correlate studies. The network of collaborators I established at this time and training in leveraging basic science for public health benefit are durable outcomes of this work. (To highlight a few: AIDS. 2012 Sep 10;26 (14):1745-53; J Infect Dis. 2012 Oct 1;206(7):993-1001; PLoS One. 2013;8(1):e53251; BMC Infect Dis. 2016 Jan 25;16(1):27)

2. A second body of work focusses on the genetic determinants of gene expression in human cells. I worked with a team of collaborators in Oxford and was mentored by Adrian Hill (a leading vaccinologist, co-developer of the ‘Oxford’ COVID vaccine), Julian Knight, Helen McShane and Andrew Morris. Our work showed how differences in the genetic code between individuals, affects how much of that gene is expressed and hence why some people may be susceptible to certain diseases and others are not. My training in bioinformatics, statistical genetics and in basic immunology was deepened in Oxford and my network of collaborators further enriched.  (To highlight two papers which have had significant impact on the our understanding of gene regulation in specific cells :Nature Communications. 2015 Jul 7;6:7545; Science. 2014 Mar 7;343(6175):1246949)

3. A major focus of my work has, and continues to be, application of genomic tools to understand disease susceptibility. I co-founded and co-led the International Tuberculosis Host Genetics Consortium which conducted the largest meta-analysis of TB related host genetic studies.  (Book Chapter: Microbiol Spectr. 2016 Oct;4(5). doi: 10.1128/microbiolspec.TBTB2-0011-2016.PMID: 27787193, J Infect Dis. 2014 Feb 15;209(4):500-9. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jit494, EBioMedicine. 2015 Nov;2(11):1619-26. doi: 10.1016/j.ebiom.2015.09.027.PMID: 26870787 and several under review)

4. Immune cells recognize threats such as viruses or early cancers through specific molecules on the virally infected or cancer cells called Human Leukocyte Antigen, HLA. The HLA system of presentation is encoded for in the most variable part of the human genome. Moreover, this part of the genome is the most replicably associated with human disease yet our knowledge of it remains limited. During my postdoctoral training with Mary Carrington, we elucidated specific aspects of how this immune cell recognition works. (Science. 2018 Jan 5;359(6371):86-90. doi: 10.1126/science.aam8825, J Clin Invest. 2018 Apr 3. pii: 98463. doi: 10.1172/JCI98463)

5. Applying insights into HLA biology to the area of my clinical training in medical oncology, I led one of the largest studies to date on HLA variation and cancer immunotherapy outcomes, and expanded these efforts in collaboration with others to whole-genome analyses. We have built wide collaborations now across multiple academic institutions and industry allowing the scale of analyses required for discovery of predictive variants in complex traits (The Lancet Oncology. Jan;23(1):172-184. doi: 10.1016/S1470-2045(21)00582-9, Nature Medicine 2022 Dec; 28(12):2584-2591, Nature Medicine 2022 Dec; 28(12), Nature Genetics 2023 Apr; In press)

6. During the SARS CoV-2 pandemic, I established and led several immunology cohort studies including one of the first sero-epidemiology studies in the world and led CANVAX, the largest cohort studies in patients with cancer and the first with boosters (published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology and Cancer Cell amongst others). Our work in healthy volunteers provided several key insights into the role of neutralizing antibodies and T-cells in mediating cross strain protection (collectively leading to three manuscripts in Cell, and >ten published elsewhere). It was widely covered in the lay press (>100 news articles/TV/radio interviews and thousands of tweets in dozens of countries) and influenced public policy in the USA, Europe, Asia, Australia and many other countries especially by promoting early deployment of boosters to overcome Omicron variant and the need for additional doses in immunocompromised individuals (J Infect Dis. 2020 Sep 9:jiaa579. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiaa579, Cell. 2021 Apr 29;184(9):2372-2383.e9. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.03.013. Epub 2021 Mar 12, Cell 2022 Jan 6: S0092-8674(21)01496-3. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2021.12.033, Cancer Cell 2022 Jan 10;;40(1):103-108.e2. doi: 10.1016/j.ccell.2021.12.002, Cell. 2022 Mar 31;185(7):1259, Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2021)

Additional publications

A full list of Associate Professor Vivek Naranbhai's publications can be viewed via his NCBI Bibliography and Google Scholar.

Visit Associate Professor Vivek Naranbhai's Monash research profile.