Najla Nasr

A/Prof

BSc/MSc/PhD

najla.nasr@wimr.org.au

Centre for Virus Research

HIV Immunotherapeutic Group

Currently open to PHD and Honours students in the topic areas of:

HIV reactivation by IFN to eliminate or reduce viral reservoirs

Characterising Tissue Resident Memory T cells in the human ano-genital mucosa

Assessing an effective cure for HIV infected patients using immunotherapy

Najla Nasr

Biography

Najla Nasr is an Assoc Professor at the University of Sydney, and the Head of the HIV Immunotherapeutic Group at the Westmead Institute for Medical Research (WIMR) with a dual focus on HIV prevention and cure strategies. Her laboratory groundbreaking work uncovered how HIV evades detection by manipulating innate immunity to establish chronic infection.

The HIV Immunotherapeutic Group is funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), The Australian Centres for HIV, HTLV-1, Hepatitis B and C Virology Research (ACH4), and philanthropic funds from the Neil and Norma Hill Foundation.

Assoc Professor Nasr’s current primary area of research is to develop therapeutics to prevent and treat of HIV. More than 35 years after its discovery, HIV still propagates worldwide. Lifelong antiretroviral therapy (ART) stops HIV from replication, however there is no effective microbicide or vaccine that blocks HIV sexual transmission, nor a treatment exists to cure HIV infected patients. Assoc Professor Nasr research aims at vaccine development to prevent transmission and elimination of silent HIV in cells that don’t respond to ART.

Research interests

Immunology and Virology

Adjunct roles

Recent publications

Recent advances in our understanding of human inflammatory dendritic cells in HIV infection.

Characterising plasmacytoid and myeloid AXL+ SIGLEC6+ dendritic cell functions and their interactions with HIV. PLoS Path 2024.

Strategies to eliminate the CD4 T cells HIV viral reservoir via CAR T cell immunotherapy. Frontiers Immunol 2022

The role of Tissue Resident Memory CD4 T Cells in Herpes Simplex Viral and HIV Infection. Viruses 2021

Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells Have Divergent Effects on HIV Infection of Initial Target Cells and Induce a Pro-retention Phenotype. PLoS Pathogen 2021

Current grants

NHMRC 2024-2027 A novel strategy to reactivate HIV in CD4 T cells via interferon alpha treatment
Australian Centre for HIV, HBV, HCV & HTLV-1 Research (ACH4) 2025 Targeting latent HIV by novel combination immunotherapy with IFNα8 and CAR T-cells
Neil and Norma Hill Foundation Philanthropic Donation 2023- Investigating the role of human Dendritic cells in HIV.

Professional Associations and Organisations

2020-Current WIMR Faculty Member of the Career Development Committee.
2019-2023 WIMR Faculty Chair for the PC3 committee and the Honours Committee
2019-2022 The Scientific Advisory Committee for WSLHD Member - reviewed human ethic applications
2018-Current Marie Bashir Institute/Sydney Infectious Diseases Institute Member
2015-Present Australasian Virology Society (AVS) Member
2014-present Australian Society of Immunology (ASI) Member
2012-present) Australian Society of HIV Medicine (ASHM) Member
2009-present Australian Centre for HIV and Hepatitis C Research (ACH2) Member

Awards and recognition

2023 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grant
2023 National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Ideas Grant Award
2018 Finding of how HIV beats the body’s early immune response