Executive Team

Professor Matthew Cook

The John Curtin School of Medical Research | The Australian National University | Australia

Matthew is a practicing immunologist and head of department. He has published more than 60 peer-reviewed articles with an average of 54 citations each, in good quality journals, including Nature x1, Immunity x3, J Exp Med x9, and Blood x3 and PNAS x1. Highlights include discovery of Th17 deficiency in hyper IgE syndrome (J Exp Med 2008), demonstration of the role of Tfh cells in human lupus (Arthritis Rheum, 2010, cited 109 times), which built on our discovery of a new pathway of tolerance in germinal centres (Nature 2005 with CIA), and discovery of the ER stress mechanism of inflammatory bowel disease (PLoS Medicine 2009). He has made consistent contributions to his profession via Australasian Society for Clinical Immunology and Allergy, RACP, RCPA and the NHMRC and provides regular advice to government and health departments.


Dr Ed Bertram

The John Curtin School of Medical Research | The Australian National University | Australia

Executive Officer, PhD GradDipMgt

Ed completed his PhD in Immunology in 1997 at the University of Adelaide and conducted post-doctoral research in Immunology at University of Toronto in Canada.  Ed has experience working in academia in both a research and teaching capacity, and over the last twelve years has provided executive leadership to a number of international research and commercial programs.  In 2016, he completed a Graduate Diploma of Management (towards an MBA for completion in 2017).

E: edward.bertram@anu.edu.au


Dr Qian (Sophie) Shen

John Curtin School of Medical Research | Australian National University | Australia

Qian (Sophie) Shen is a Deputy Director of China-Australian Center for Personalised Immunology based in Shanghai Renji Hospital (Jiaotong University) and a Senior Postdoctoral Researcher of Immunology at the Australian National University. She has been at the biomedical research for more than 15 years. She was awarded a PhD degree at John Curtin School of Medical Research where she worked on the chromatin and transcriptional regulation during development. She also had held leadership roles in biomedical industry in both China and Australia. Sophie is currently involved in several collaborative projects related to connect genetic variation in humans to autoimmune disease.