Dr Christine Wells

Dr Christine Wells

BSc, PhD

Contact details for Dr Wells

Biography

Christine Wells has an active, international profile in the field of mammalian genetics and functional genomics. Christine's broad research interests are in the area of cellular differentiation, particularly in cells of the innate immune system. Her current research projects study the genomic and epigenetic changes that accompany macrophage differentiation and inflammatory activation.

She has Australian Research Council (ARC) funding to study the impact of alternate splicing in macrophage populations. Initial genome screens indicate that alternate splicing is an important mechanism to generate functional diversity in the innate immune system. Our analyses have identified several novel isoforms of key signalling molecules that regulate pathogen recognition and inflammatory outcomes. We are also using global expression profiling to identify new inflammatory signalling pathways, and this has been successful at identifying the novel c-type lectin Mincle as a mediator of cytokine production in response to the common fungal infection Candida albicans. Christine has National Health and Medical Research council (NHMRC) funding to investigate the role of Mincle as a novel innate immune receptor, as part of an ongoing collaboration with A/Professor Robert Ashman (UQ).

Dr Wells has an active, international profile in the field of mouse genetics and functional genomics. She is a lead participant in several international consortia including

  1. PI for the Griffith University contribution to the human Genome Network Project
  2. The functional annotation of the Mouse (FANTOM) which has resulted in 12 high-impact publications
Dr Wells is chair of the FANTOM complex loci working party, and a senior member of the leadership team. The Genome Network Project efforts from Griffith University will focus on the analysis of human adult stem cells. This data will provide essential insights into the natural variation in human gene expression networks, as well as provide leads into complex diseases such as Schizophrenia and Parkinson's disease.

Research Expertise

  1. mammalian genetics and functional genomics
  2. cellular differentiation
  3. genomic and epigenic changes that accompany macrophage differentiation and inflammatory activation
  4. impact of alternate splicing in macrophage populations

Back to top