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Dr Richard L. Ferrero B.App.Sc. (NSWIT), Ph.D. (UNSW)

Senior Lecturer and Research Group Leader

Gastrointestinal Infection and Inflammation

Dr. Richard L. Ferrero

Career

A central theme of my research is Helicobacter pylori, the causative agent of peptic ulcer disease and gastric cancer in humans. My work in this area has been broad, covering various scientific disciplines: from microbial physiology and molecular pathogenesis, through to vaccine development and mucosal immunology.

I first became interested in H. pylori during doctoral studies in the School of Microbiology , at the University of NSW , Sydney . My PhD project concerned the biochemical and functional characterisation of the ureases of H. pylori and two related Helicobacter spp. Upon completion of my doctoral training in 1990, I took up a post-doctoral position at the Institut Pasteur, in Paris , to clone and sequence the urease genes from another gastric Helicobacter sp. (Helicobacter felis). In 1994, I was appointed to a full-time junior faculty position (Assistant de Recherche) within the Unité de Pathogénie Bactérienne des Muqueuses, at the institute . A major achievement of our research group’s work was the identification of urease as a candidate antigen for a human H. pylori vaccine. From 1997 onwards, I worked as an independent researcher within this research group. The major focus of my research since that time has been the investigation of host-pathogen interactions in Helicobacter-induced inflammation. Since June 2004, I have been employed as a Senior Lecturer within the Department of Microbiology, at Monash University .

Prizes and Professional Activities

I have been awarded several young scientist prizes from the European Helicobacter pylori Study Group (1994-1996), and was the beneficiary of the “Prize for research in gastroenterology, in France ” from the Association Charles Debré (1997) and The Dr Darollesprize for “Studies on Helicobacter infections” from L’Académie Nationale de Médecine, France (2001). I have given over 30 presentations as an invited speaker at national and international meetings, throughout Europe , the USA and Japan , and have contributed several book chapters to works devoted to H. pylori. These have been published in scientific journals in the fields of general medicine and postgraduate gastroenterology, as well as in specialist books. I also serve as a regular and ad hoc reviewer of manuscripts submitted for publication to international scientific journals (e. g. Cell. Microbiol., Gut, Infect. Immun.), and have refereed grant applications (ARC, Cancer Research UK , HRB ( Ireland ), NHMRC, Wellcome Trust, UK ) and doctoral theses in the area of Helicobacter research. I am a regular reviewer of abstracts submitted for oral presentation at international H. pylori conferences (1997, 1998, 2000-present), at which I have chaired numerous scientific sessions (1997, 1998, 2000, 2003) and have presented workshop summaries (1998, 2003). In 2002, I was invited to become a member of thescientific committee of “TheInternational Workshop on Pathogenesis and Host Response in Helicobacter infections.”

Publications

Peer reviewed journals:

  • Viala, J. Chaput, C., Boneca, I. G., Cardona, A., Girardin, S. E., Moran, A. P., Athman, R., Mémet, S., Huerre, M. R., Coyle, A. J., DiStefano, P. S., Sansonetti, P. J., Labigne, A., Bertin, J., Philpott, D. J., Ferrero, R. L. (2004) Nod1 responds to peptidoglycan delivered by the Helicobacter pylori cag pathogenicity island . Nature Immunol. 5, 1166-1174.
  • Gobert, A. P., Bambou, JC., Werts, C., Balloy, V., Chignard, M., Moran, A. P., Ferrero, R. L. (2004). Helicobacter pylori Heat Shock Protein 60 mediates interleukin-6 production by macrophages via a Toll-like Receptor (TLR)-2-, TLR-4- and Myeloid Differentiation factor 88-independent mechanism. J. Biol. Chem. 279, 245-250.
  • Philpott, D. J., Belaid, D., Troubadour, P., Thiberge, J. M., Tankovic, J., Labigne, A, Ferrero, R. L. (2002). Reduced activation of inflammatory responses in host cells by mouse-adapted Helicobacter pylori isolates. Cell. Microbiol.4, 285-296.
  • Innocenti, M., Thoreson, A-C., Ferrero, R. L., Strömberg, E., Eriksson, L., Svennerholm, A-M., Quiding-Järbrink, M. (2002). H. pylori induced activation of human endothelial cells involves factors other than CagPAI and VacA. Infect. Immun.70, 4581-4590.
  • Crabtree, J. E.., Ferrero, R. L., Kusters, J. G. (2002). The mouse colonizing Helicobacter pylori strain SS1 may lack a functional cag pathogenicity island. Helicobacter (Letter) 7, 139-140.
  • Radcliff, F. J., Ferrero, R. L. (2001). Effect of low dose antigen exposure on development of immunity to Helicobacter pylori infection in mice. Infect. Immun. 69, 5186-5188.
  • Ferrero , R. L., Labigne, A. (2001). H. pylori vaccine development in the post-genomic era: Can in silico translate to in vivo?Scand. J. Immunol. 53, 443-448.
  • Jenks, P. J., Ferrero, R. L., Tankovic, J., Thiberge, J.- M., Labigne, A. (2000). Evaluation of nitrofurantoin combination therapy of metronidazole-sensitive and -resistant Helicobacter pylori infections in mice. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother.44, 2623-2629.
  • Ferrero , R. L., Ave, P., Radcliff, F. J., Labigne, A., Huerre, M.- R. (2000). Outbred mice with longterm Helicobacter felis infection develop both gastric lymphoid tissue and glandular hyperplastic lesions. J. Pathol. 191, 333-340.

Book chapters and reviews

  • Ferrero , R. L. (2005) Innate immune recognition of the extracellular mucosal pathogen, Helicobacter pylori .Molec. Immunol 42 , 879-85.
  • Ferrero , R. L., Fox, J. G. (2001). In vivo modelling of Helicobacter-associated gastrointestinal diseases, InHelicobacter pylori: Physiology and genetics. Eds. Mobley, H. L. T., Hazell, S. L., Mendz, G. L., American Society for Microbiology, ( Washington , DC ), pp 565-582
  • Ferrero , R. L., Jenks, P. J. (2001) In vivo adaptation of H. pylori to the host. Ibid, pp 583-592.