Catherine Rush

Cathy Rush is Associate Professor, Immunology in the College of Medicine and Dentistry and a member of the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM). Cathy leads the tuberculosis theme within the Tropical Infection and Immunity Research Group at JCU.

Cathy is a cellular immunologist and a teaching/research/service JCU Academic with research interests that focus on the fundamental biology of macrophages, dendritic cells and T cells in host-bacteria interactions and chronic inflammatory conditions.

Research interests

Cathy's research interests focus on dissecting the immune mechanisms responsible for initiating and driving chronic inflammatory diseases and how some of these conditions impair the body's efforts to combat severe bacterial diseases including tuberculosis (TB) and melioidosis. We know that type 2 diabetes, chronic inflammatory lung diseases like COPD and co-infections with parasites may affect the immune responses in these bacterial infections. An understanding of these basic principles, pathways and processes of our immune system is essential for devising strategies to fight infectious diseases or treat immune-mediated disorders.

Cathy's research sits at the intersection of communicable and non-communicable diseases.  Her expertise in mechanistic cellular immunology and use of pre-clinical models is applied across immunology, microbiology, autoimmunity, cardiovascular disease and vaccines to investigate drivers and interventions for different immune-mediated and infectious diseases. Cathy and her team use the state-of-the-art PC2 and high-containment PC3 facilities at JCU for their infectious disease research.

Her interests in TB and melioidosis and expertise in infectious disease immunology strongly align with JCUs tropical health and medicine agenda of addressing the significant health security threats facing northern Australia and our near neighbours in Papua New Guinea. 

Research performance

Cathy's research outputs include >105 peer-reviewed publications, including research papers, reviews and multiple book chapters:

• 4300 Citations ~ 40 citations/paper (Google Scholar (GS))
• h-index 34, i10 index 59 (GS)
• Published in the world's leading journals on topics related to immunology, autoimmunity, inflammation, infection. These include:
  • Science (Journal impact factor (IF) =47); In her field IF of 4 is a major contribution, >7 substantial work, >10 major work of international importance, >15 exceptional.
  • Science Advances (IF=14.1)
  • Blood (IF=22.1)
  • Journal of Experimental Medicine (IF=12.6)
  • PNAS (IF=9.4)

Research student supervision

The outputs of Cathy's research grants have included Higher Degree Research (HDR) student completions (14 in previous10 years) with >80% scholarly outputs emanating from HDR supervision. She is a leader of postgraduate research learners where she strives to respond to the current research in HDR pedagogy and the changes in doctoral education by supporting students to develop transferable knowledge and skills to prepare them for careers both inside and outside academia. Cathy was a JCU HDR Advisor of the Year Award Winner in 2013 and 2016.

Teaching activities

Cathy teaches Microbiology and Immunology across various JCU courses including:

• B. Biomedical Sciences/B.Medical Laboratory Science: MI3061 (Advanced Immunobiology), BM2220 (Infection and Immunity), ML3102 (Professional Practice, Laboratory Management and Quality Assurance)
• B. Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery: MD2011 (Haematology and Renal Medicine module), MD3011 (Infection, Inflammation and Immunology module)
• B. Pharmacy: PC2220 (Applied Therapeutics and Pharmacy Practice 2)

Administrative responsibilities

Cathy is Section Head of Vertebrate Disease Terrestrial (i.e. Microbiology and Immunology) within the Discipline of Biomedical Sciences and Molecular Biology in the College of Medicine and Dentistry at JCU.

Current Research Projects

The table below highlights some of our current research projects.

• Host-pathogen interactions in tuberculosis
• Melioidosis in North Queensland
• Co-morbidities associated with tuberculosis susceptibility and progression 
• Soil-transmitted helminths and their influence on tuberculosis in Papua New Guinea
• TB co-morbidities and antimicrobial resistance
• Immunological mechanisms responsible for initiating and driving the chronic inflammatory diseases , Type 2 Diabetes and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.