Derek Hart

Biography

Prof Hart has made major scientific and clinical contributions, particularly in relation to his special interest in dendritic cells (DC), immune therapies and bone marrow transplantation (BMT). He is a Rhodes Scholar and Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia Distinguished Fellow. Prof Hart discovered the interstitial DC during his postgraduate studies in Oxford and pioneered studies defining human DC and the role DC play in allogeneic transplantation. After returning to New Zealand and training as a clinical haematologist, Prof Hart became Director of the Christchurch Clinical Haematology Unit and BMT Unit and left it with a significant research reputation, including UK MRC trial participation. He completed 11 years as the inaugural Mater Medical Research Institute Director in Brisbane, establishing it as an internationally recognized institute with a strong translational program including clinical cell therapy trials. His leadership helped create the new Queensland Translational Institute. Prof Hart moved to the University of Sydney in 2010 to establish the DC Biology and Therapeutics Group at the ANZAC Research Institute and to undertake translational collaborative research projects at the Royal Prince Alfred, Westmead and Concord Hospitals. His human DC research program leads the field, including being the first to clone several white blood cell membrane (cluster of differentiation (CD)) antigens and define several human DC subsets. The Group continues to define DC cell surface antigens, including important immune regulator genes (CD300) and has several novel gene deleted mouse models under investigation. New preclinical humanized mouse models are being used to define other translational applications e.g. new DC targeted vaccines, a trial to predict acute graft versus host disease (AGVHD), novel anti - DC immune-suppressive agents and a new antibody for acute myeloid leukemia. His team’s novel immunosuppressive anti-CD83 technology is being developed commercially, by the CRC- Biomarker Translation, which he co-founded. Prof Hart has published 245 peer reviewed articles (95 in high impact or major specialty journals (e.g. 19 in Blood), with an H Factor of 47 and total citations of 10,806.Prof Hart is Chief Investigator on current NHMRC Program and Cancer Institute of New South Wales Translational Program Grants and holds or has held other Australian (NHMRC project, CRC-BT & other) grants and US/European grants, notably grants for DC immunotherapy (DOD, NIH) as well as philanthropic support. Prof Hart has licensed several patents and has used his intellectual property (IP) to attract commercial support from Pfizer, Miltenyi and Gambro. The IP from his group is managed and commercialized by DendroCyte BioTech. He has served on the NHMRC Academy and GRPs, chairs the Ramaciotti Foundation Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) and Institute of Glycomics SAB and serves on the Australian Bone Marrow Donor Registry Ethics Committee, Sydney Catalyst T1 Committee and Concord Cancer Centre Steering Committee. Prof Hart co-hosted the 6th International Symposium on Dendritic Cells (2000), is a member of the International Society for Cell Therapy Immunotherapy Committee and his Group is on the WHO/CD Committee and is hosting the International HLDA10 meeting in 2014. Prof Hart has been invited to speak at many national and international conferences. He and other members of his Group have received a number of prizes and awards. Prof Hart continues to host the popular “DC Down Under” annual DC scientific symposium and maintains interactions with a number of successful former students and postdoctoral fellows now in substantive positions in leading national and international institutions.

Research Interest

The Dendritic Cell Research Group at the ANZAC Research Institute is a recently established research program focused on understanding dendritic cell biology to enable the development of new ways to treat haematological diseases. The group is a translational research group with projects suitable for PhD candidates interested in basic biology or more clinically focused work. Our main areas of focus are: 1. DC Antigen Discovery and Antibody Engineering 2. Dendritic Cell Biology: Fundamental and Applied 3. Immunostimulation/Cancer Vaccination 4. Immunosuppression/Anti-inflammatory