Dr. Laura Mackay is a Professor at The Peter Doherty Institute at The University
of Melbourne. She is currently a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) and
Bill & Melinda Gates International Scholar, University of Melbourne Dame Kate
Campbell Fellow, Sylvia & Charles Viertel Charitable Foundation Senior Medical
Research Fellow and a NHMRC Leadership Investigator. She is the recipient of
Awards including The Prime Minister’s Prize for The Frank Fenner Life Scientist
of the Year, The Gottschalk Medal (Australian Academy of Science), The Eureka
Prize for Outstanding Early Career Researcher, The Woodward Medal, The
Michelson Prize for Human Immunology and she is the Immediate Past President
of The Federation of Immunological Societies of Asia-Oceania (FIMSA).

For a number of years, Laura has been at the forefront of research on immunological
memory, and how memory T cells protect the body against disease. Her work
was instrumental in the discovery that a subset of immune cells called tissue-
resident memory T cells are critical for the control of infection and cancer. The
current focus of her Laboratory is on the molecular signals that govern tissue-
resident memory T cell differentiation, with a view to harness these cells for the
development of new immunotherapeutic strategies against disease.