A/Prof Cecile King

Visiting Scientist - Cellular Immunity Lab

A/Prof Cecile King

Cecile King’s research focus over the past 15 years has been in the field of autoimmune disease and T cell immunobiology. Cecile completed her PhD in Immunology at the Telethon Institute for Child Health/University of Western Australia (1999). At completion of the PhD, she was appointed as a Researc

Research Level

Senior Research Officer

Biography

Cecile King’s research focus over the past 15 years has been in the field of autoimmune disease and T cell immunobiology. Cecile completed her PhD in Immunology at the Telethon Institute for Child Health/University of Western Australia (1999). At completion of the PhD, she was appointed as a Research Associate in the Department of Immunology, Scripps Research Institute in the Laboratory of Nora Sarvetnick.

Cecile returned to Australia in 2005 and has since established her own independent research group at the Garvan Institute. Her Lab has produced highly cited studies on T helper cell differentiation and autoimmune disease. These studies opened up the field of research on the cytokine interleukin-21 in autoimmune disease and the development of T follicular helper cells. 

Cecile King’s research focus over the past 15 years has been in the field of autoimmune disease and T cell immunobiology. Cecile completed her PhD in Immunology at the Telethon Institute for Child Health/University of Western Australia (1999). At completion of the PhD, she was appointed as a Research Associate in the Department of Immunology, Scripps Research Institute in the Laboratory of Nora Sarvetnick.

Cecile returned to Australia in 2005 and has since established her own independent research group at the Garvan Institute. Her Lab has produced highly cited studies on T helper cell differentiation and autoimmune disease. These studies opened up the field of research on the cytokine interleukin-21 in autoimmune disease and the development of T follicular helper cells. 

Awards and Honours

2012 - Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation/Macquarie Group Foundation Diabetes Research Innovation Award
2012 - Diabetes Australia Research Trust Millennium Award
2010 - NHMRC Career Development Research Fellow II
2009 - Rebecca L. Cooper Medical Research Foundation Award
2008 - Rebecca L. Cooper Medical Research Foundation Award
2005-2006 - JDRF Transition award
2001-2005 - Advanced Postdoctoral Fellowship. Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International Postdoctoral Fellowship: JDFI/10-2001-645.
1998-2001 - Postdoctoral Fellowship. Juvenile Diabetes Foundation International: JDFI/398215.

Education

1993 - BSc (major in Immunology/Microbiology), University of Western Australia
1999 - PhD, Department of Immunology/Institute for Child Health Research, University of Western Australia

Selected Publications

Christoph Jandl and Cecile King (2016, Cit 1). Cytokines in the Germinal Center Niche. Antibodies. 5 (1) 15.

Helen M. McGuire, Alexis Vogelzang, Joanna Warren, Claudia Loetsch, Karlo D. Natividad, Tyani D. Chan, Robert Brink, Marcel Batten and Cecile King (2015). Interleukin-21 and interleukin-4 collaborate to shape T dependent antibody responses. Journal of Immunol  Dec 1;195(11):5123-35.

Alexis Vogelzang, Helen McGHuire, Sue M. Liu, Brian Gloss, Karessa Mercado, Peter Earls, Marcel M. Dinger, Marcel Batten, Jonathan Sprent and Cecile King (2014). Interleukin-21 contributes to fatal inflammatory disease in the absence of FoxP3+ T regulatory cells. Journal of Immunol. Feb 15;192(4):1404-14

McGuire and Cecile King (2014). The immunobiology of interleukin-21, Encyclopedia of Medical Immunology: Volume 1: Autoimmune Diseases , Springer eds Noel Rose and Ian Mackay, August 11, 2014.Sue Liu and Cecile King (2013). IL-21 producing T helper cell subsets in immunity and autoimmunity. Journal of Immunol. 191 (7) 3501-3506.

Cecile King and Jonathan Sprent (2012). Emerging cellular networks that regulate T follicular helper cells. Trends in Immunology 33(2): 59-65.

Cecile King (2011). A fine romance: T follicular helper cells and B cells. Immunity 34(6):827-29.

Helen McGuire, Alexis Vogelzang, Cindy S Ma, William E. Hughes, Pablo Silveira, Stuart G Tangye, David Fulcher, Daniel Christ, Marika Falcone and Cecile King (2011). A Subset of Interleukin-21(+) Chemokine Receptor CCR9(+) T Helper Cells Target Accessory Organs of the Digestive System in Autoimmunity. Immunity, 34(4):602-15.

Badami E, Sorini C, Coccia M, Usuelli V, Molteni L, Bolla AM, Scavini M, Mariani A, King C, Bosi E, Falcone M (2011). Defective Differentiation of Regulatory FoxP3+ T Cells by Small-Intestinal Dendritic Cells in Patients With Type 1 Diabetes. Diabetes, 60(8):2120-4.

Cecile King and Nora Sarvetnick (2011). The incidence of type-1 diabetes in NOD mice is modulated by restricted flora not germ-free conditions. PLoS One. 6(2):e17049.

Helen M. McGuire, Stacey Walters, Alexis Vogelzang, Carol M. Y. Lee, Kylie E. Webster, Jonathan Sprent, Daniel Christ, Shane T. Grey and Cecile King (2011).  Interleukin-21 is critically required in autoimmune and allogeneic responses to islet tissue. Diabetes. 60 (3): 867-75.

Cho JH, Kim HO, Webster K, Palendira M, Hahm B, Kim KS, King C, Tangye S, Sprent J (2011). Calcineurin-dependent negative regulation of CD94/NKG2A expression on naive CD8+ T cells. Blood, 118(1);116-28.

Helen McGuire, Alexis Vogelzang, Natasha Hill, Malin Flodström-Tullberg, Jonathan Sprent and Cecile King (2009). Loss of parity between IL-2 and IL-21 in the NOD Idd3 locus. PNAS USA, 106(46):19438-43.

Cecile King (2009). New insights into the development and function of T follicular helper cells. Nat Rev Immunol. 9(11):757-66.

Alexis Vogelzang, Helen M. McGuire, Jon Sprent Charles R. Mackay and Cecile King (2008). A fundamental role for IL-21 in T helper cell differentiation. Immunity, 29(1):127-37.

Cecile King, Stuart G. Tangye and Charles R. Mackay (2008). T follicular helper cells in normal and dysregulated immune responses. Annu Rev Immunol. 26:741-47.

Cecile King, Alex Ilic, Kersten Koelsch and Nora Sarvetnick (2004). Homeostatic expansion of T cells during immune insufficiency generates autoimmunity. Cell, 117, 265-77.

Cecile King, Regula Mueller, Mary Malo Cleary, Murali Krishner, Rafi Ahmed, Ernest King and Nora Sarvetnick (2002). Interleukin-4 acts at the locus of the antigen-presenting dendritic cell to counter-regulate cytotoxic CD8+ T cell responses. Nature Medicine: 7, 206-14.