Dr David Zahra

Dr David Zahra obtained his Honours degree in Science from the University of Sydney in 1991 where he majored in Chemistry and Genetics. He completed his PhD in 1995 under the supervision of Roger Reddel at the Children’s Medical Research Institute where he worked on viral proteins that facilitate the immortalisation of human cells.

In 1996 he took up a research scientist position at the CRC for Biopharmaceuticals where he developed an in vitro antibody library maturation process to improve the ability to isolate antibodies against a number of targets. In 1999 he moved to the University of New South Wales and undertook studies into the causes of rheumatoid arthritis and developed a tissue bank from arthritic patients in conjunction with St Vincent’s Hospital at Darlinghurst.

In 2002, he was recruited to the Garvan Institute of Medical Research’s Immunology program. David developed a number of antibodies for the treatment of inflammatory disease. Antibodies were isolated from mice against difficult targets and these antibodies were shown to be effective in the treatment of inflammatory disease. Two key antibodies were humanised and developed for pre-clinical analysis prior to being licenced to major pharmaceutical companies for human pre-clinical and clinical trials.

In 2013, David was appointed as a Group Leader of the Genomic Engineering Group in the Institute’s Immunology Division.