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
2007
Conference Publication
Analysis of in vivo responses to hydrogen peroxide purified PHBV biomaterial implanted in a murine tibial defect
Wu, A. C. K., Toulson, S., Pettit, A., Grondahl, L., Mackie, E. J. and Cassady, A. I. (2007). Analysis of in vivo responses to hydrogen peroxide purified PHBV biomaterial implanted in a murine tibial defect. 29th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, Honolulu, HI, U.S.A, 16-19 Sep 2007. Washington, D. C.: American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
2007
Conference Publication
Osteal macrophages: Novel regulators of bone formation
Raggatt, L. J., Alexander, K. A., Kuliwaba, J. S., Fazzalari, N. L., Hume, D. A. and Pettit, A. R. (2007). Osteal macrophages: Novel regulators of bone formation. 29th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, Honolulu, HI, United States, 16-19 September 2007.
2007
Conference Publication
The endosteal bone niche contains macrophages that regulate osteoblast function
Pettit, A. R., Chang, M. K., Alexander, K. A., Wu, A. C., Hume, D. A. and Raggatt, L. J. (2007). The endosteal bone niche contains macrophages that regulate osteoblast function. 17th Scientific Meeting of the International Bone & Mineral Society, Montreal, Canada, 24-29 June 2007. New York: Elsevier Science. doi: 10.1016/j.bone.2007.04.166
2007
Journal Article
Antigen-specific suppression of established arthritis in mice by dendritic cells deficient in NF-κB
Martin, E., Capini, C., Duggan, E., Lutzky, V. P., Stumbles, P., Pettit, A. R., O'Sullivan, B. and Thomas, R. (2007). Antigen-specific suppression of established arthritis in mice by dendritic cells deficient in NF-κB. Arthritis And Rheumatism, 56 (7), 2255-2266. doi: 10.1002/art.22655
2007
Book Chapter
Osteoprotegerin
Pettit, Allison R. and Gravallese, E. M. (2007). Osteoprotegerin. Contemporary Targeted Therapies in Rheumatology. (pp. 251-264) edited by Peter E. Lipsky and Josef S. Smolen. London, United Kingdom: Informa Healthcare.
2007
Conference Publication
Primary Murine Osteoblast Cultures Contain Macrophages that Enhance Osteoblast Mineralisation
Chang, M., Hume, D. A., Pettit, A. R., Raggatt, L., Ripoll, V. M. and Schroder, K. (2007). Primary Murine Osteoblast Cultures Contain Macrophages that Enhance Osteoblast Mineralisation. 29th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research (ASBMR), Honolulu, Hawaii, USA, 16th - 19th September, 2007. Washington, D. C.: American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
2007
Book Chapter
Identification and isolation of synovial dendritic cells
Pettit, Allison R., Cavanagh, Lois, Boyce, Amanda, Padmanabha, Jagadish, Peng, Judy and Thomas, Ranjeny. (2007). Identification and isolation of synovial dendritic cells. Arthritis Research Methods and Protocols. (pp. 165-181) edited by Andrew P. Cope. Totowa, N.J., U.S.A.: Humana Press Inc.
2007
Journal Article
Identification and isolation of synovial dendritic cells
Pettit, Allison R., Cavanagh, Lois, Boyce, Amanda, Padmanabha, Jagadish, Peng, Judy and Thomas, Ranjeny (2007). Identification and isolation of synovial dendritic cells. Methods in Molecular Medicine, 136, 165-181. doi: 10.1007/978-1-59745-402-5_12
2007
Conference Publication
Osteal Macrophages: Novel regulators of Bone Formation
Raggatt, L. J., Chang, M. K., Alexander, K. A., Kuiliwaba, J. S., Fazzalari, N. L., Hume, D. A. and Pettit, A. R. (2007). Osteal Macrophages: Novel regulators of Bone Formation. 29th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, Honolulu, HI, 16th -19th September, 2007. Washington, D.C., United States: American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
2006
Journal Article
Regulation of bone biology by prostaglandin endoperoxide H synthases (PGHS): A rose by any other name...
Li, L., Pettit, A. R., Gregory, L. S. and Forwood, M. R. (2006). Regulation of bone biology by prostaglandin endoperoxide H synthases (PGHS): A rose by any other name.... Cytokine & Growth Factor Reviews, 17 (3), 203-216. doi: 10.1016/j.cytogfr.2006.01.005
2006
Journal Article
RANKL protein is expressed at the pannus-bone interface at sites of articular bone erosion in rheumatoid arthritis
Pettit, A. R., Walsh, N. C., Manning, C., Goldring, S. R. and Gravallese, E. M. (2006). RANKL protein is expressed at the pannus-bone interface at sites of articular bone erosion in rheumatoid arthritis. Rheumatology, 45 (9), 1068-1076. doi: 10.1093/rheumatology/kel045
2005
Conference Publication
The expression of novel human RANKL mRNAs in cell types associated with inflammatory bone loss
Walsh, N. C., Pettit, A. R., Manning, C., Wang, J., McHugh, K. P. and Gravallese, E. M. (2005). The expression of novel human RANKL mRNAs in cell types associated with inflammatory bone loss. 69th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology/40th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals, San Diego, Ca, USA, 12-17 November 2005. Hoboken. N.J., USA: John Wiley & Sons.
2005
Conference Publication
RANKL protein is expressed at the pannus-bone interface at sites of erosion in rheumatoid arthritis
Gravallese E. M., Walsh N. C., Manning C. A., Goldring S. R. and Pettit A. R. (2005). RANKL protein is expressed at the pannus-bone interface at sites of erosion in rheumatoid arthritis. 69th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology/40th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals, San Diego, Ca, USA, 12-17 November 2005. Hoboken. N.J., USA: John Wiley & Sons.
2005
Conference Publication
The expression of novel human RANKL mRNAs in cell types associated with inflammatory bone loss
Walsh, N. C., Pettit, A. R., Manning, C., Wang, J., McHugh, K. P. and Gravallese, E. M. (2005). The expression of novel human RANKL mRNAs in cell types associated with inflammatory bone loss. The American Society for Bone and Mineral Research 27th Annual Meeting, Nashville, Tennessee, USA, 22 - 27 September 2005. Washington, D. C., USA: American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
2005
Conference Publication
RANKL protein is expressed at the pannus-bone interface at sites of erosion in rheumatoid arthritis
Pettit, A. R., Walsh, N. C., Goldring, S. R. and Gravallese, E. M. (2005). RANKL protein is expressed at the pannus-bone interface at sites of erosion in rheumatoid arthritis. 27th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, Nashville, TN, United States, 23-27 September 2005. WASHINGTON: AMER SOC BONE & MINERAL RES.
2005
Conference Publication
RANKL protein is expressed at the pannus-bone interface at sites of erosion in rheumatoid arthritis
Pettit, A. R., Walsh, N. C., Manning, C., Goldring, S. R. and Gravallese, E. M. (2005). RANKL protein is expressed at the pannus-bone interface at sites of erosion in rheumatoid arthritis. 27th Annual Meeting of the American Society for Bone and Mineral Research, Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.A., 23-27 September 2005. Washington, D.C., U.S.A.: American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.
2005
Conference Publication
The expression of novel human RANKL mRNAs in cell types associated with inflammatory bone loss
Walsh, N. C., Pettit, A. R., Manning, C. A., Wang, J. F., McHugh, K. P. and Gravallese, E. M. (2005). The expression of novel human RANKL mRNAs in cell types associated with inflammatory bone loss. 69th Annual Scientific Meeting of the American College of Rheumatology/40th Annual Scientific Meeting of the Association of Rheumatology Health Professionals, San Diego, CA, United States, 12-17 November 2005. HOBOKEN: WILEY-BLACKWELL.
2005
Book Chapter
Pathogenesis of focal bone loss in inflammatory arthritis
Pettit, Allison R. and Gravellese, Ellen M. (2005). Pathogenesis of focal bone loss in inflammatory arthritis. Bone Disease in Rheumatology. (pp. 15-22) edited by Maricic, Michael and Gluck, Oscar S.. Arizona, USA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
2004
Journal Article
Lack of requirement of osteopontin for inflammation, bone erosion, and cartilage damage in the K/BxN model of autoantibody-mediated arthritis
Jacobs, J. P., Pettit, A. R., Shinohara, M. L., Jansson, M., Cantor, H., Gravallese, E. M., Mathis, D. and Benoist, C. (2004). Lack of requirement of osteopontin for inflammation, bone erosion, and cartilage damage in the K/BxN model of autoantibody-mediated arthritis. Arthritis And Rheumatism, 50 (8), 2685-2694. doi: 10.1002/art.20381
2004
Journal Article
Differential transcriptional effects of PTH and estrogen during anabolic bone formation
von Stechow, D, Zurakowski, D, Pettit, AR, Muller, R, Gronowicz, G, Chorev, M, Otu, H, Libermann, T and Alexander, JM (2004). Differential transcriptional effects of PTH and estrogen during anabolic bone formation. Journal of Cellular Biochemistry, 93 (3), 476-490. doi: 10.1002/jcb.20174
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
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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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