Catherine Rush

Cathy Rush is an Associate Professor, Immunology and member of the Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM).

Her principal research interest isunderstanding the immunological mechanisms underlying inflammatory and infectious diseases.

Our body's immune system protects us from severe infectious diseases, but if it becomes overactive it can drive diseases like inflammatory lung diseases and type 2 diabetes. Although the triggers may be different, the same key immune cells and molecules are involved in all these conditions. An understanding of the basic principles, pathways and processes of our immune system is essential for devising strategies to fight infectious diseases or treat immune-mediated disorders.

Her research interests focus on this foundation: dissecting the immune mechanisms responsible for initiating and driving chronic inflammatory diseases and furthermore how these co-morbidities impair the body's efforts to combat severe bacterial diseases including tuberculosis (TB) and melioidosis.

Her expertise in mechanistic immunology and use of pre-clinical models to investigate drivers and interventions for different immune-mediated and infectious diseases has been sought across several multidisciplinary research programs. Her interests in TB 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.