Approximately one in 10 adult Australians have indicators of chronic kidney disease, a serious condition that can progress to end-stage kidney disease. There is little we can do to delay this progression, but we do know that kidney inflammation is a key contributor in deterioration of kidney function. New therapeutic approaches we have developed include cell therapies and DNA vaccines to target kidney inflammation.
Our research aims to understand the mechanisms underlying kidney inflammation and develop novel therapeutic strategies to reverse or delay progression of chronic kidney disease to kidney failure.
Recent Achievements
NHMRC Investigator Grant (2022-2026), Qi Cao. “Developing novel therapeutic approaches by using innate lymphoid cells in chronic kidney disease.”
NHMRC Idea Grant (2022-2025), Yiping Wang, Qi Cao. “Exploring the therapeutic potential of genetically engineering macrophages with a Chimeric Signaling Switch Receptor in kidney diseases.”
Recent publications

Type 2 innate lymphoid cells are protective against hepatic ischaemia/reperfusion injury. JHEP Rep. 2023
July 2023

A DNA Nanoraft-Based Cytokine Delivery Platform for Alleviation of Acute Kidney Injury. ACS Nano. 2021
November 2021

IL-10 producing type 2 innate lymphoid cells induced by IL-33 prolong islet allograft survival. EMBO Mol Med. 2020
October 2020

Regulatory innate lymphoid cells suppress innate immunity and reduce renal ischemia/reperfusion injury. Kidney Int. 2020
January 2020

Potentiating tissue resident type 2 innate lymphoid cells by IL-33 to prevent renal ischemia/reperfusion injury. J Am Soc Nephrol. 2018
March 2018
NAME | ROLE |
A/P Qi Cao | Group leader |
Prof David Harris | Co-leader/mentor |
A/P Yiping Wang | Co-investigator |
A/P Vincent Lee | Co-investigator |
Dr Jianwei Chen | PhD student |
Dr Titi Chen | PhD student |
Dr Sanjeewa Wanninayake | Master student |
Dr Xuerong Wang | Visiting Scholar |
Dr Qingsong Huang | Visiting Scholar |