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Tuesday March 18, 2025

Congratulations to Laura Cook
2022 ASI Gordon Ada Career Advancement Awardee

We warmly congratulate
Laura Cook
winner of the 2022 ASI Gordon Ada Career Advancement Award

Supporting mid career ASI members who wish to travel for career related purposes

I am an NHMRC Emerging Leadership Investigator and Senior Research Officer in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Melbourne at the Doherty Institute. My group is pursuing studies of immune regulation, with a focus on regulatory T cells. We are particularly interested in mechanisms that enhance development of cellular memory and how this is impaired following severe infection. This work is made possible through collaboration with intensivists at the Royal Melbourne and Royal Adelaide hospitals. To better study human immunity in a tissue environment, we have recently developed organoid and immune cell co-culture experimental systems for gut and lung. These studies are in collaboration with the Victorian Centre for Functional Genomics and the Australian Donor and Tissue Biobank.

I am incredibly grateful to ASI for the 2022 Gordon Ada Career Advancement Award. This award enabled my attendance at the 2024 International Congress of Mucosal Immunology (ICMI) in Copenhagen, Denmark. This conference is run every two years by the Society of Mucosal Immunology, and this was my first meeting as a member of the Society’s Board of Councillors representing the Australia/Asia region. One of the big themes from the meeting was macrophages, with talks highlighting different subsets, how they respond to infection and replenish in tissues and their novel interactions with other immune subsets. I look forward to seeing how the field has advanced at the 2026 meeting in Montréal, Canada.

I was thrilled to watch my PhD student Laraib Amir Ali present her human gut organoid and T cell co-culture data at ICMI. Earlier in 2024, Laraib and I were awarded 1st Place in the 2024 University of Melbourne Animal Welfare Excellence Awards for developing organoid tools to eventually replace animal models, with this prize money used to support Laraib’s attendance at ICMI. Following the conference, Laraib undertook 5-days laboratory training in high throughput organoid and immune cell co-culture assays at HUB organoids, Utrecht, a global leader in organoid technology. I visited with the HUB organoids Chief Scientific Officer and discussed their biobank operations and technique development pipeline. This visit to HUB organoids was also supported by a travel grant from the Medical Advances Without Animals (MAWA) trust. In the same research precinct, I also delivered an invited presentation on our studies of immune function in critical illness to the Intensive Care Researchers at the University Medical Centre Utrecht and discussed collaborative opportunities. 

For me 2024 was a year of connecting with researchers, consolidating ongoing research projects and initiating new collaborations, which would not have been possible without this Gordon Ada award. In these financially stressful times, the support that ASI provides to early and mid-career investigators is critical to enable us to remain connected with the international community. Thank you to ASI and I highly encourage all members to apply for the awards on offer.

Laura Cook and PhD student Laraib Amir Ali at their poster presentation at ICMI 2024 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

The Cook group celebrating a successful year in December 2024.

Author: Laura Cook

Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author/s and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of ASI