BIO – Professor Joseph A Trapani

Professor Joseph Trapani received his medical degree in 1977 and his PhD in 1986, from The University of Melbourne and the Royal Melbourne Hospital.

He completed physician training in Rheumatology (1985) and first became interested in CTL biology as a post-doctoral fellow at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Institute, New York (1986-1989).

Here, Professor Joseph Trapani has elucidated the molecular and cellular pathways to granzyme B-mediated apoptosis, the mechanisms of perforin/granzyme synergy and undertaken the first ever structure-function analysis of human perforin.

Professor Joseph Trapani is currently Deputy Director, Research at the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, Melbourne, where he co-heads the Cancer Immunology Program with Mark Smyth.

Professor Joseph Trapani’s research interests include the immunopathology of viral diseases, apoptosis induction by cytotoxic lymphocytes and cancer immunotherapy.

Joe is a Senior Principal Research Fellow of the NHMRC and the author of 160 primary research papers, reviews and book chapters on histocompatibility, apoptosis and cancer immunotherapy.