Innate Immunity in Fibrotic Lung Disease: Therapeutic Targets and Biomarker Discovery

Why does the innate immune system, our first line of defence against injury and infection, sometimes drive irreversible lung scarring instead of repair? In chronic fibrotic lung diseases such as silicosis and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), persistent and dysregulated innate immune activation is a central driver of progressive tissue destruction. Yet the specific cellular circuits, damage-sensing pathways, and immune–stromal interactions that convert acute injury responses into irreversible fibrosis remain poorly understood. This project will investigate how innate immune responses are dysregulated in chronic fibrotic lung diseases, with two major goals: to identify new therapeutic targets that could halt or reverse fibrosis progression, and to discover biomarkers of early disease that enable intervention before irreversible damage occurs. Silicosis, caused by inhalation of crystalline silica dust and re-emerging as a serious occupational health crisis, and IPF share key immunological features, including NLRP3 inflammasome activation, and pathological myeloid cell responses. By studying innate immune dysfunction in both diseases, this project will uncover shared and distinct mechanisms, broadening the therapeutic relevance of findings. As an Honours or PhD student, you will work at the interface of immunology and respiratory medicine with direct translational impact. You will gain hands-on experience with state-of-the-art approaches, including: -Pre-clinical murine models of silicosis and pulmonary fibrosis to study pathogenesis and validate therapeutic targets in vivo -Biomarker discovery using patient-derived samples from clinical cohorts -Advanced flow cytometry, molecular and biochemical assays (ELISA, cytokine multiplex arrays, western blot, confocal microscopy) to track inflammatory responses This is an exciting opportunity to join a dynamic and collaborative research team tackling urgent questions in immunology and respiratory disease: how the innate immune system decides between repair and pathological fibrosis, and how we can harness this understanding to develop the next generation of host-directed therapies and diagnostic tests for diseases that currently have no cure.