Overview
Background
Professor Pettit leads the Bones and Immunology Research Group at Mater Research Institute-UQ and is Director of Biomedical Research for Mater Research. Professor Pettit has led multidisciplinary research discovering intersecting biological mechanisms across the fields of immunology, rheumatology, cancer biology, haematology and bone biology. Professor Pettit is currently a UQ Amplify recipient associated with an ARC Future Fellowship, 2017-2020 and CIA on an NHMRC Ideas Grant, 2022-25. Major contributions led by Professor Pettit include the paradigm shifting discovery of a novel population of resident macrophages, osteal macrophages (osteomacs), and their role in promoting bone formation and bone regeneration after injury. Her team have published over 17 manuscripts based on this original discovery (with over 1700 citations) including translation of this basic research discovery toward eluciating novel disease mechanism from cancer bone metastasis to osteoporosis. This also led to the novel discovery of bone marrow resident macrophage contributions to supporting blood stem cells niches and the key role that these cells play in protecting this vital niche from cancer therapies. Bone marrow and specifically haematopoietic stem cell damage is one of the most serious and life-threatening side effects of cancer therapies. Here discoveries are cited in over 117 patent documents and she is currently collaborating with a major pharmaceutical partner.
Professor Pettit's leadership and achievements have been recognised through multiple awards including the 2019 UQ Faculty of Medicine Leader of the Year (Academic), Women in Technology 2018 Life Sciences Outstanding Achievement Award and becoming a Fellow of the American Society of Bone and Mineral Research. Professor Pettit has been invited to give numerous presentations at national and international conferences including Seoul Symposium on Bone Health, Asia-Pacific League of Associations for Rheumatology Congress and a prestigious American Society of Bone and Mineral Research Meet-the-Professor session. Professor Pettit is and Associate Editor for the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, is an past Council member for the Australian and New Zealand Bone and Mineral Society, and chairs or serves on numerous committees including the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes Gender Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee. PhD candidates under Professor Pettit's supervision have all been supported by scholarships (including 2 x NHMRC), received numerous local and national awards (e.g. Dr Alexander, ASMR QLD Premier Postgraduate Award, 2011 and Dr Lena Batoon won the UQ Faculty of Medicine Graduate of the Year Award, 2021), all had high quality first author publications at completion and 2 received UQ Dean’s Commendations.
Availability
- Professor Allison Pettit is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Fields of research
Qualifications
- Bachelor (Honours) of Science (Advanced), Griffith University
- Doctor of Philosophy, The University of Queensland
Research impacts
- Discovery that the transcription factor RelB is a critical molecular mediator of dendritic cell antigen presentation and extended this to show that RelB expressing dendritic cells have critical roles in the initiation and perpetuation of joint inflammation in inflammatory arthritis. These discoveries were used by my principal HDR supervisor (Professor Ranjeny Thomas; https://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/396) as the knowledge platform to develop the first vaccine therapy for rheumatoid arthritis.
- Demonstration that RANKL is the essential and rate limiting cytokine required for osteoclast formation and focal bone erosion in inflammatory arthritis. This research output influenced pharmaceutical industry development of the blockbuster drug Denosumab.
- Leadership of the paradigm shifting discovery of a novel population of resident macrophages, osteal macrophages (osteomacs), and their novel role in promoting osteoblastic bone formation and bone regeneration after injury. This has completely changed how the bone and mineral/orthopaedic research field views macrophage contributions to bone health and disease and has influence parallel fields including tissue regeneration and biomaterials.
- Discovery that macrophages regulate haematopoietic stem cell (HSC) niche homeostasis. The landmark paper on which I am co-first author is a Web of Science highly cited paper (top 1% or research outputs) that has been cited by papers spanning 46 research fields. We have since extended this discovery to demonstrate that resident macrophage resilience to lethal radiation is essential for bone marrow recovery and successful HSC engraftment and haematopoietic reconstitution post-HSC transplantation (senior author manuscript in Blood, 2018).
- Exposed that resident tissue macropahges are fragmented during tissue single cell suspension generation, leaving behind encapsulated remnants of themselves that have detectable cell membrane proteins, intracellur proteins and reporter molecules and RNAs. This undermindes the accuracy of burgeoning high parameter technologies focussed on single cell analysis (e.g. flow cytometry, single cell RNAseq, CITESeq, etc) as depending on the tissue disaggregation and analysis strategy, macrophages are under-represented relative to their abundance in tissues and/or macrophage-expressed genes are mistakenly attributed to non-macrophage cells and vice versa
Works
Search Professor Allison Pettit’s works on UQ eSpace
2021
Journal Article
CSF1R-dependent macrophages control postnatal somatic growth and organ maturation
Keshvari, Sahar, Caruso, Melanie, Teakle, Ngari, Batoon, Lena, Sehgal, Anuj, Patkar, Omkar L., Ferrari-Cestari, Michelle, Snell, Cameron E., Chen, Chen, Stevenson, Alex, Davis, Felicity M., Bush, Stephen J., Pridans, Clare, Summers, Kim M., Pettit, Allison R., Irvine, Katharine M. and Hume, David A. (2021). CSF1R-dependent macrophages control postnatal somatic growth and organ maturation. PLoS Genetics, 17 (6) e1009605, e1009605. doi: 10.1371/journal.pgen.1009605
2021
Journal Article
Healing of sub-critical femoral osteotomies in mice is unaffected by tacrolimus and deletion of recombination activating gene 1
Liu, T-Y, Bartnikowski, M., Wu, A. C., Veitch, M., Sokolowski, K. A., Millard, S. M., Pettit, A. R., Glatt, V., Evans, C. H. and Wells, J. W. (2021). Healing of sub-critical femoral osteotomies in mice is unaffected by tacrolimus and deletion of recombination activating gene 1. European Cells and Materials, 41, 345-354. doi: 10.22203/eCM.v041a22
2021
Journal Article
Vincristine-induced peripheral neuropathy is driven by canonical NLRP3 activation and IL-1β release
Starobova, Hana, Monteleone, Mercedes, Adolphe, Christelle, Batoon, Lena, Sandrock, Cheyenne J., Tay, Bryan, Deuis, Jennifer R., Smith, Alexandra V., Mueller, Alexander, Nadar, Evelyn Israel, Lawrence, Grace Pamo, Mayor, Amanda, Tolson, Elissa, Levesque, Jean-Pierre, Pettit, Allison R., Wainwright, Brandon J., Schroder, Kate and Vetter, Irina (2021). Vincristine-induced peripheral neuropathy is driven by canonical NLRP3 activation and IL-1β release. Journal of Experimental Medicine, 218 (5) e20201452. doi: 10.1084/jem.20201452
2021
Journal Article
Stable colony-stimulating factor 1 fusion protein treatment increases hematopoietic stem cell pool and enhances their mobilisation in mice
Kaur, Simranpreet, Sehgal, Anuj, Wu, Andy C., Millard, Susan M., Batoon, Lena, Sandrock, Cheyenne J., Ferrari-Cestari, Michelle, Levesque, Jean-Pierre, Hume, David A., Raggatt, Liza J. and Pettit, Allison R. (2021). Stable colony-stimulating factor 1 fusion protein treatment increases hematopoietic stem cell pool and enhances their mobilisation in mice. Journal of Hematology and Oncology, 14 (1) 3, 1-19. doi: 10.1186/s13045-020-00997-w
2020
Journal Article
A transgenic line that reports CSF1R protein expression provides a definitive marker for the mouse mononuclear phagocyte system
Grabert, Kathleen, Sehgal, Anuj, Irvine, Katharine M., Wollscheid-Lengeling, Evi, Ozdemir, Derya D., Stables, Jennifer, Luke, Garry A., Ryan, Martin D., Adamson, Antony, Humphreys, Neil E., Sandrock, Cheyenne J., Rojo, Rocio, Verkasalo, Veera A., Mueller, Werner, Hohenstein, Peter, Pettit, Allison R., Pridans, Clare and Hume, David A. (2020). A transgenic line that reports CSF1R protein expression provides a definitive marker for the mouse mononuclear phagocyte system. Journal of Immunology, 205 (11), 3154-3166. doi: 10.4049/jimmunol.2000835
2020
Conference Publication
3092 – Stable colony stimulating factor 1 fusion protein treatment increases the hematopoietic stem cell pool and enhances their mobilization in mice
Kaur, Simranpreet, Sehgal, Anuj, Wu, Andy, Millard, Susan, Batoon, Lena, Sandrock, Cheyenne, Levesque, Jean-Pierre, Hume, David, Raggatt, Liza and Pettit, Allison (2020). 3092 – Stable colony stimulating factor 1 fusion protein treatment increases the hematopoietic stem cell pool and enhances their mobilization in mice. 49th Annual Scientific Meeting of the ISEH - International Society for Experimental Hematology, New York, NY USA, 20-23 August 2020. Philadelphia, PA USA: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.exphem.2020.09.105
2020
Journal Article
Imaging flow cytometry reveals that granulocyte colony-stimulating factor treatment causes loss of erythroblastic islands in the mouse bone marrow
Tay, Joshua, Bisht, Kavita, McGirr, Crystal, Millard, Susan M., Pettit, Allison R., Winkler, Ingrid G. and Levesque, Jean-Pierre (2020). Imaging flow cytometry reveals that granulocyte colony-stimulating factor treatment causes loss of erythroblastic islands in the mouse bone marrow. Experimental Hematology, 82, 33-42. doi: 10.1016/j.exphem.2020.02.003
2019
Journal Article
Deformation behavior of porous PHBV scaffold in compression: A finite element analysis study
Patel, Rushabh, Lu, Mingyuan, Diermann, Sven Heinrich, Wu, Andy, Pettit, Allison and Huang, Han (2019). Deformation behavior of porous PHBV scaffold in compression: A finite element analysis study. Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials, 96, 1-8. doi: 10.1016/j.jmbbm.2019.04.030
2019
Journal Article
Inhibition of JAK1/2 Tyrosine Kinases Reduces Neurogenic Heterotopic Ossification After Spinal Cord Injury
Alexander, Kylie A., Tseng, Hsu-Wen, Fleming, Whitney, Jose, Beulah, Salga, Marjorie, Kulina, Irina, Millard, Susan M., Pettit, Allison R., Genet, Francois and Levesque, Jean-Pierre (2019). Inhibition of JAK1/2 Tyrosine Kinases Reduces Neurogenic Heterotopic Ossification After Spinal Cord Injury. Frontiers in Immunology, 10 (MAR) 377. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.00377
2019
Conference Publication
Osteal macrophage contributions to adult bone homeostasis and postmenopausal osteoporosis bone pathology
Pettit, Allison, Batoon, Lena, Millard, Susan, Wu, Andy and Raggatt, Liza (2019). Osteal macrophage contributions to adult bone homeostasis and postmenopausal osteoporosis bone pathology. Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, Orlando, FL, United States, 20-23 September, 2019. Hoboken, NJ, United States: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing Asia.
2019
Conference Publication
Non-genotoxic conditioning facilitates tolerance induction through stable mixed hematopoietic chimerism of gene modified bone marrow
Hasan, M. A., Pettit, A. R. and Steptoe, R. J. (2019). Non-genotoxic conditioning facilitates tolerance induction through stable mixed hematopoietic chimerism of gene modified bone marrow. 17th International Congress of Immunology (IUIS), Beijing, China, 19-23 October, 2019. Weinheim, Germany: Wiley. doi: 10.1002/eji.201970400
2018
Journal Article
Self-repopulating recipient bone marrow resident macrophages promote long-term hematopoietic stem cell engraftment
Kaur, Simranpreet, Raggatt, Liza J., Millard, Susan M., Wu, Andy C., Batoon, Lena, Jacobsen, Rebecca N., Winkler, Ingrid G., MacDonald, Kelli P., Perkins, Andrew C., Hume, David A., Levesque, Jean-Pierre and Pettit, Allison R. (2018). Self-repopulating recipient bone marrow resident macrophages promote long-term hematopoietic stem cell engraftment. Blood, 132 (7), 735-749. doi: 10.1182/blood-2018-01-829663
2018
Conference Publication
Granulocyte Colony Stimulating Factor impacts on osteomacs and bone marrow macrophages - implications for prostate cancer osteoblastic lesion formation
Millard, Susan, Wu, Andy, Kaur, Simran, He, Yaowu, Batoon, Lena, Hooper, John and Pettit, Allison (2018). Granulocyte Colony Stimulating Factor impacts on osteomacs and bone marrow macrophages - implications for prostate cancer osteoblastic lesion formation. Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, Montréal, Quebéc, Canada, Sep 28-Oct 01, 2018. Hoboken, NJ, United States: Wiley-Blackwell Publishing. doi: 10.1002/jbmr.3621
2018
Conference Publication
Self-repopulating recipient bone marrow recipient macrophages promote hematopoietic stem cell engraftment post autologous transplantation
Pettit, Allison, Kaur, Simranpreet, Raggatt, Liza, Millard, Susan, Wu, Andy, Batoon, Lena, Jacobsen, Rebecca, Winkler, Ingrid, MacDonald, Kelli, Perkins, Andrew, Hume, David and Levesque, Jean-Pierre (2018). Self-repopulating recipient bone marrow recipient macrophages promote hematopoietic stem cell engraftment post autologous transplantation. 47th Annual Scientific Meeting of the International Society for Experimental Hematology, Los Angeles, CA, United States, 23-26 August 2018. Philadelphia, PA, United States: Elsevier. doi: 10.1016/j.exphem.2018.06.117
2018
Conference Publication
Oncostatin M is a key effector of heterotopic ossification following spinal cord injuries
Tseng, Hsu-Wen, Alexander, Kylie, Kulina, Irina, Salga, Marjorie, Jose, Beulah, Genet, Francois, Torossian, Frederic, Guerton, Bernadette, Anginot, Adrienne, Fleming, Whitney, Millard, Susan, Pettit, Allison, Sims, Natalie, Lataillade, Jean-Jacques, Le Bousse-Kerdiles, Marie-Caroline and Levesque, Jean Pierre (2018). Oncostatin M is a key effector of heterotopic ossification following spinal cord injuries. Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, Montreal Canada, September 28 - October 1 2018. Hoboken, NJ United States: Wiley.
2017
Journal Article
Macrophages Driving Heterotopic Ossification: Convergence of Genetically-Driven and Trauma-Driven Mechanisms
Levesque, Jean-Pierre, Sims, Natalie A., Pettit, Allison R., Alexander, Kylie A., Tseng, Hsu-Wen, Torossian, Frédéric, Genêt, François, Lataillade, Jean-Jacques and Le Bousse-Kerdilès, Marie-Caroline (2017). Macrophages Driving Heterotopic Ossification: Convergence of Genetically-Driven and Trauma-Driven Mechanisms. Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, 33 (2), 365-366. doi: 10.1002/jbmr.3346
2017
Journal Article
Macrophage-derived oncostatin M contributes to human and mouse neurogenic heterotopic ossifications
Torossian, Frédéric, Guerton, Bernadette, Anginot, Adrienne, Alexander, Kylie A., Desterke, Christophe , Soave, Sabrina, Tseng, Hsu-Wen, Arouche, Nassim, Boutin, Laetitia, Kulina, Irina, Salga, Marjorie, Jose, Beulah, Pettit, Allison R., Clay, Denis, Rochet, Nathalie, Vlachos, Erica, Genet, Guillaume, Debaud, Charlotte, Denormandie, Philippe, Genet, François, Sims, Natalie A., Banzet, Sébastien, Levesque, Jean-Pierre, Lataillade, Jean-Jacques and Le Bousse-Kerdilès, Marie-Caroline (2017). Macrophage-derived oncostatin M contributes to human and mouse neurogenic heterotopic ossifications. JCI Insight, 2 (21) e96034. doi: 10.1172/jci.insight.96034
2017
Journal Article
CD169+ macrophages are critical for osteoblast maintenance and promote intramembranous and endochondral ossification during bone repair
Batoon, Lena, Millard, Susan Marie, Wullschleger, Martin Eduar, Preda, Corina, Wu, Andy Chiu-Ku, Kaur, Simranpreet, Tseng, Hsu-Wen, Hume, David Arthur, Levesque, Jean-Pierre, Raggatt, Liza Jane and Pettit, Allison Robyn (2017). CD169+ macrophages are critical for osteoblast maintenance and promote intramembranous and endochondral ossification during bone repair. Biomaterials, 196, 51-66. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2017.10.033
2017
Journal Article
Characterization of normal murine carpal bone development prompts re-evaluation of pathological osteolysis as the cause of human carpal-tarsal osteolysis disorders
Lazarus, Syndia, Tseng, Hsu-Wen, Lawrence, Felicity, Woodruff, Maria Ann, Duncan, Emma Letitia and Pettit, Allison Robyn (2017). Characterization of normal murine carpal bone development prompts re-evaluation of pathological osteolysis as the cause of human carpal-tarsal osteolysis disorders. American Journal of Pathology, 187 (9), 1923-1934. doi: 10.1016/j.ajpath.2017.05.007
2017
Journal Article
Osteomacs and bone regeneration
Batoon, Lena, Millard, Susan Marie, Raggatt, Liza Jane and Pettit, Allison Robyn (2017). Osteomacs and bone regeneration. Current Osteoporosis Reports, 15 (4), 385-395. doi: 10.1007/s11914-017-0384-x
Funding
Current funding
Supervision
Availability
- Professor Allison Pettit is:
- Available for supervision
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Available projects
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Deconvoluting Tissue Resident Macrophage Biology
Project only open to Australian Domestic Applicants at this time with competitive stipend on offer.
Analysis of single cell preparations from tissues is a mainstay of biological discovery research. Particularly in the current era of costly investment in increasingly high dimensional analysis of single cell samples toward generation of publicly available data sets. The team exposed an unrecognised technical phenomenon that has high potential to substantively compromise single cell data accuracy across a broad range of research fields including immunology and haematology. Specifically, tissue resident macrophages are fragmented during haematopoietic single cell suspension preparation and leave behind encapsulated remnants containing membrane and cytoplasmic molecules attached to other cells they were interacting with in situ. This phenomenon profoundly compromises accurate analysis of the data generated. Using this unique perspective, the project aims to 1) expose how widespread this phenomenon is in a diverse range of tissues across age; 2) develop optimised approaches to eliminate macrophage fragmentation during haematopoietic tissue single cell preparation; and 3) take advantage of this technical phenomenon to achieve a substantive knowledge gain in understanding bone marrow macrophage specialisation.
The outcome of this research is a broad spectrum increase in the fidelity of biology research that utilises this common approach. This will elevate translatability of research outcomes and ultimately public confidence in the Australian biology research sector. It will create opportunity to collaborate with industry toward improved development of relevant reagents and instrument technology and inform development of digital tools to deconvolute this phenomenon when analysing big data sets.
Supervision history
Current supervision
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Doctor Philosophy
Deconvoluting Tissue Resident Macrophage Biology
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Katharine Irvine, Dr Susan Millard
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Doctor Philosophy
Advanced optical imaging of bone marrow macrophages.
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Jennifer Stow
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Doctor Philosophy
Characterisation of sulfate deficiency on preterm neonatal bone growth and development.
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Yvonne Eiby, Dr Susan Millard, Dr Paul Dawson
Completed supervision
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2021
Doctor Philosophy
Osteal macrophages as therapeutic targets for fracture repair
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Liza Raggatt, Dr Susan Millard
-
2018
Doctor Philosophy
The role of macrophages in facilitating haematopoietic stem cell engraftment and reconstitution
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Jean-Pierre Levesque, Dr Liza Raggatt
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2010
Doctor Philosophy
Osteal macrophages (osteomacs) are pivotal for intramembranous bone formation in vivo: Osteomacs facilitate osteoblast maintenance in vivo and enhance osteoblast-mediated bone deposition in a murine model of bone healing
Principal Advisor
Other advisors: Professor David Hume, Dr Liza Raggatt
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2023
Doctor Philosophy
Deciphering the Influence of Macrophages on Endothelial Progenitors
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Dr Simranpreet Kaur, Professor Antje Blumenthal, Professor Kiarash Khosrotehrani
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2020
Doctor Philosophy
Safer conditioning for antigen-encoding bone marrow transfer to induce immune tolerance
Associate Advisor
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2019
Doctor Philosophy
Biomimetic Multilayered Nano-Fibrous Scaffolds for Guided Bone Regeneration
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor Justin Cooper-White
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2016
Doctor Philosophy
Determining the mechanisms underlying multicentric carpotarsal osteolysis and osteogenesis imperfecta type V
Associate Advisor
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2015
Doctor Philosophy
Inflammation-driven bone formation in ankylosing spondylitis: Characterisation of the proteoglycan-induced spondylitis mouse model
Associate Advisor
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2009
Doctor Philosophy
Role of macrophages, residing on the bone surface, in bone remodelling and repair
Associate Advisor
Other advisors: Professor David Hume, Dr Liza Raggatt
Media
Enquiries
Contact Professor Allison Pettit directly for media enquiries about:
- Bone Marrow Transplantation
- Osteoporosis Fragility Fracture
- Tissue regeneration
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