Professor Bostjan Kobe

Administering Organisation: The University of Queensland

Discipline Area: Biological Sciences and Biotechnology

Fellowship project summary:

FL180100109

This project aims to improve our understanding of innate immunity, the first line of defense against pathogens in diverse organisms. Innate immune pathways are key to a range of pathological states in animals, and provide plants with resistance to the diseases that account for 15% of crop losses. This project will generate knowledge, through characterising mechanisms of cell signalling for mammalian and plant innate immunity. The outcomes will include a unified signalling model, and form the foundation for a range of applications in human biology and agriculture, such as the development of durable and effective resistance in crops.

Australian Research Council funding: $2,762,247

About Professor Kobe

Professor Bostjan Kobe is Leader of the Protein Structure and Function research group at The University of Queensland, which is working to understand the structural basis of intra- and intermolecular interactions formed by proteins, with a focus on proteins involved in infection and immunity. 

Professor Kobe’s research is using a multidisciplinary approach, combining X-ray crystallography and other biological, biophysical and computational techniques to determine structural and molecular information, and understand the molecular and cellular functions of proteins. His research has contributed significantly to our understanding of immunity pathways in both plants and animals, and is leading to the validation of proteins as therapeutic targets or biotechnological products, and to the design of new therapeutics and biotechnological applications.

Professor Kobe served as President of the Society of Crystallographers in Australia and New Zealand from 2012–2014, was a recipient of the 2017 School of Chemistry and Molecular Biosciences Research Higher Degree by Research Supervision Excellence Award and 2018 Australian Society of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology Beckman Coulter Discovery Science Award, and was elected to the Australian Academy of Science in 2018. He is also a former ARC Federation Fellow (2005–2009).

Find out more about Professor Kobe’s research by visiting his profile page on The University of Queensland website.

For further information about this funding scheme, please visit the Australian Laureate Fellowships scheme page on the ARC website.