Georges Grau Australasian Extracellular Vesicles Conference 2018

Georges Grau

Professor Georges Grau obtained a MD from the University of Liège and a Privat-Docent from the University of Genève. He has been the Chair of Vascular Immunology at the University of Sydney since 2006. Since 1979, his research has focused on immunopathological mechanisms of infectious diseases, with particular emphasis on cytokines and the microvascular endothelium. Research Interests: • Immunopathology of microvascular lesions, particularly of cerebral and pulmonary complications of infectious and auto-immune diseases. Principal interests are cerebral malaria, septic shock and multiple sclerosis. • Analysis of the cellular and molecular mechanisms of the interactions between microvascular endothelial cells and cells of the immune system. • Experience in various in vivo (mouse models) and in vitro experimental systems as well as in clinical studies. His in vivo intervention studies in murine models contributed to the elucidation of cytokine interactions leading to tissue injury, with particular attention to tumour necrosis factor (TNF), which had important implications for cell adhesion molecules in various models of pathology. In multi-compartment co-culture systems involving human endothelial cells, his group found that platelets can act as effectors of cytokine-induced microvascular damage. • More recently, focus on the neurovascular lesion of human cerebral malaria, using co-culture model systems involving brain endothelium, P. falciparum-infected erythrocytes, as well as circulating cells, particularly platelets and monocytes. • Phenotypic and functional analysis of extracellular vesicles, particularly microvesicles and exosomes, released in these co-cultures. Working experience: with his team at the Vascular Immunology Unit, he has: • shown that microvesicles (MV, previously called microparticles) are nanometer-range elements that behave as crucial effectors in the mechanisms of cytokine-mediated pathology, using in vivo and in vitro models; • developed a brain endothelium co-culture system, to study blood-brain barrier changes in cerebral malaria, sepsis, multiple sclerosis, viral encephalitides and cryptococcal meningitis. • established that MV can dramatically activate monocytes and stimulate T cell proliferation • deciphered critical cellular and molecular mechanisms of MV release in inflammatory conditions • shown that inhibition of MV release can prevent pathology His 368 papers (272 peer-reviewed) have been cited over 30,000 times and his h-index is 89. Since 2015 he serves as Discipline Leader (Pathology), Marie Bashir Institute, and in 2017 he was elected President of the Australian-New Zealand Microcirculation Society (ANZMS).