Air-liquid interface cultures of primary airway epithelial cells for studying innate immunity and susceptibility to infection

Originally from the United Kingdom, Dr Deane completed his undergraduate honours degree in Applied Genetics at The University of Liverpool, and Master’s degree in the Immunology of Infectious Disease at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.  He then went on to study his PhD at the University of Newcastle (Australia) focusing on the role of mast cells in respiratory disease.

His research interests are innate immunity and host pathogen interactions at the airway epithelium. Since moving to UQ in 2018 Dr Deane has established an in-vitro model of the airway epithelium using primary nasal epithelial cells, differentiating them into a pseudostratified epithelium, whilst being cultured at an air liquid interface. This model allows the investigation of innate immune responses to be studied in an in-vitro model that replicates the human airway.

Building on his epithelial model, Dr Deane has developed several respiratory viral infection models which allow me to screen a range of antiviral compounds and elucidate innate immune responses to infection. Together with Dr Fisher Wang, Dr Deane was awarded a 2019 Research Collaboration Seeding Grant to investigate the impact of chemicals found in personal care products on innate immune responses of the human airway.