• Site Map
• Campus Map
• A-Z Index
• Staff Intranet
• Contacts

Research Interests

1) Development of nanoparticles that selectively target tumour cells during chemotherapy.

2) Development of nanoparticles that selectively target immune cells for treatment of inflammatory diseases.

3) Topical delivery of drugs and vaccines.

4) The role of MAP kinases in cell motility.

Representative Publications

Tagoh, H., Himes, R., Clarke, D., Leenen, P. J., Riggs, A. D., Hume, D. and Bonifer, C. (2002). Transcription factor complex formation and chromatin fine structure alterations at the murine c-fms (CSF-1 receptor) locus during maturation of myeloid precursor cells. Genes and Development 16(13): 1721-1737.

Himes, R., Cronau, S., Mulford, C., and Hume, D.A. (2005) The Runx1 transcription factor controls CSF-1 dependent and independent growth of monocyte/macrophages. Oncogene. 11;24(34):5278-86.

Himes R., Sester DP, Ravasi T, Cronau SL, Sasmono T and Hume DA. (2006) The JNKs are important for development and survival of macrophages. J. Immunol. 176(4):2219-28.

Wells CA, Chalk AM, Forrest A, Taylor D, Waddell N, Schroder K, Himes R., Faulkner G, Lo S, Kasukawa T, Kawaji H, Kai C, Kawai J, Katayama S, Carninci P, Hayashizaki Y, Hume DA and Grimmond SM. (2006) Alternate transcription of the Toll-like receptor signaling cascade. Genome Biol. 7(2):R10.

Aung HT, Schroder K, Himes R., Brion K, van Zuylen W, Trieu A, Suzuki H, Hayashizaki Y, Hume DA, Sweet MJ and Ravasi T. (2006) LPS regulates proinflammatory gene expression in macrophages by altering histone deacetylase expression. FASEB J. 20(9):1315-27.

Sasmono RT, Ehrnsperger A, Cronau SL, Ravasi T, Kandane R, Hickey MJ, Cook AD, Himes R., Hamilton JA, Hume DA. (2007). Mouse neutrophilic granulocytes express mRNA encoding the macrophage colony-stimulating factor receptor (CSF-1R) as well as many other macrophage-specific transcripts and can transdifferentiate into macrophages in vitro in response to CSF-1. J Leukoc Biol. 2007 Jul;82(1):111-23.

Current Students

Future Topics for Students

1) Can pathogen-associated or damage-associated molecular patterns be used to target drug particles to immune cells?

2) The use of gene expression databases to identify cell surface receptors that are up-regulated in response to inflammatory signals or oncogenesis.

3) The role of MAP kinases in immune cell migration and the response to chemotactic factors.

Abbreviated CV

Degrees

B.Sc in Microbiolgy awarded 1987 and PhD in Immunology, awarded 1991 from the University of California at Davis.

Academic and industry research appointments.

• 1998-2005: Senior Research Officer, Institute for Molecular Biosciences (IMB).

• 2003-2005: Project manager CRC for chronic inflammatory disease, IMB in partnership with company AstraZeneca.

• 2005-2008: Senior Scientist: Biotechnology company Apollo Life Sciences.

• 2008-2009: Chief Scientist: Biotechnology company Apollo Life Sciences.