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I am a Senior Research Fellow, NHMRC Emerging Leader Fellow, and Group Leader at UQ Frazer Institute. I was awarded my PhD in late 2017 by Biomedicine Discovery Institute, Monash University. Under the UQ Health Research Accelerator (HERA) program, I lead a team to investigate T and B cell responses that profoundly regulate vaccine responses, viral clearance, and anti-tumour immunity.

My research program employs combinatorial methodologies of Biochemistry and Immunology to uncover new molecular mechanisms controlling T-cell-mediated immunity:

1. The action of T cells is required in antibody responses for suppressing viral infection or tumour growth and to confer protection upon vaccination. In particular, follicular helper T (Tfh) cells, a specialised subset of CD4+ T cells, essentially instruct the B cells to produce long-lived antibody protection. The knowledge of Tfh cells has fundamentally enabled vaccine development and therapy design for autoimmune diseases.

2. T-cell-derived cytokines play pivotal roles in both humoral and cellular immunity. Particularly, interleukin-21 (IL-21) is essential for supporting germinal centre (GC) reaction, where the B cell memory and long-lived antibody responses are generated. Besides, IL-21 is also the only known cytokine to maintain the functionalities of CD8+ T cells in the context of chronic infections or cancers by preventing a loss-of-function program termed 'exhaustion'.

This research program has generated multiple cutting-edge discoveries in the field, producing publications as 1st or joint 1st authors in top-tier journals including Nature Immunology, Science Immunology, and Nature Communications.

Dr Jenny Fung is a Senior Research Officer at the School of Biomedical Sciences (SBMS), where she investigates the genetic and immune mechanisms underlying complex diseases. Her research combines molecular biology, genomics, computational analysis, and both ex-vivo and in-vivo models, with a focus on translating discoveries to benefit patients.

Dr Fung completed her PhD in Endocrinology at UQ and conducted postdoctoral research at QIMR Berghofer and The Institute for Molecular Bioscience, uncovering key molecular mechanisms driving endometriosis. In 2019, she joined Professor Trent Woodruff’s laboratory, expanding her work to neurodegenerative diseases, including motor neuron disease (MND), Huntington’s disease, and frontotemporal dementia. She has contributed her expertise in high-throughput proteomics to a Phase Ib clinical trial in MND and is actively involved in patient-focused projects, including identifying immune and molecular biomarkers in longitudinal patient cohorts and evaluating therapeutic targets in patient-derived cells.

She has published over 40 peer-reviewed papers in journals including Nature Genetics, Nature Communications, PNAS, and Brain, Behavior, and Immunity. Dr Fung is passionate about connecting laboratory discoveries with clinical impact and co-leads projects integrating genetics, immunology, and patient-focused research to develop new strategies for treating complex diseases.