Dr Michael Gantier - Researcher Profile

Michael Gantier

Address

Monash Institute of Medical Research
27-31 Wright Street

Contact Details

Tel: +61 3 990 20018

Email: Michael.Gantier@monash.edu


Biography

Dr Gantier works in the Faculty of Medicine, Nursing & Health Sciences at Monash University as a Research Fellow. His main research focus is to characterise the modulation of innate immunity by small RNAs. This includes sensing of foreign RNAs by Toll like receptors, and the microRNA modulation of innate immune responses.

 

Dr. Gantier received his Ph.D. from the University College Dublin (Ireland) in 2006 following his work on the roles of double stranded RNAs in mammalian cells, under the supervision of Dr. John Baugh and Dr. Seamas Donnelly. Following his interest in the relationship between the fields of RNA interference and that of innate immunity, Dr. Gantier joined the laboratory of Prof.Bryan Williams in February 2006, in the Monash Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Australia. 

Since joining Prof.Williams’ lab,  Dr. Gantier’s work established that human Toll like receptor 7 (TLR7) was involved in the sequence-specific sensing of single stranded RNAs, and that TLR7 and 8 were able to distinguish between different sequences of RNAs. His further studies showed that these findings could be used to design bi-functional short interfering RNAs that can recruit both RNA interference and innate immunity, with possible translational application in the treatment of select cancers. In addition, Dr. Gantier’s work has also identified a key role for TLR8 in the sensing of phagosomal bacteria, and demonstrated that human TLR8 response is under genetic regulation. These findings have constituted the grounds for several publications in prestigious journals such as The Journal of Immunology, Molecular Therapy or Human Mutation.

Dr Gantier’s current studies focus on the regulation of the innate immune response by another class of short RNAs, call microRNAs. Utilizing cutting-edge techniques and models he developed to study miRNA function, he recently reported the first in-depth characterisation of miRNA decay and demonstrated that miRNAs are extremely long lived with an average half-life of 5 days (Gantier et al., Nucleic Acids Research 2011). Using these cells models, Dr Gantier also uncovered a novel role for miRNAs in the fine-tuning of inflammation (Gantier et al., Nucleic Acids Research 2012) and antiviral responses. In addition, Dr Gantier is part of a team of scientists recently awarded funding by the NHMRC to uncover the potential roles of miRNAs during Hendra virus infection. 

 

Keywords

innate immunity, micrornas, rna interference, siRNAs, toll-like receptor 7 and 8

Qualifications

PHD IN MEDICINE
Institution: University College Dublin, National University of Ireland
Year awarded: 2006

Publications

Book Chapters

Gantier, M.P.M., Williams, B.R.G., 2010, Monitoring innate immune recruitment by siRNAs in mammalian cells, in RNA Interference: From Biology to Clinical Applications, eds Wei-Ping Min and Thomas Ichim, Humana Press, USA, pp. 21-33.

Journal Articles

Gantier, M.P.M., Stunden, H.J., McCoy, C., Behlke, M.A., Wang, D., Liaskos, M., Sarvestani, S., Yang, Y.H., Xu, D., Corr, S.C., Morand, E.F., Williams, B.R.G., 2012, A miR-19 regulon that controls NF-{kappa}B signaling, Nucleic Acids Research [P], vol 40, issue 16, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom, pp. 8048-8058.

Ling, H., Edwards, A., Gantier, M., Deboer, K., Neale, A., Hamill, J., Walmsley, A., 2012, An interspecific Nicotiana hybrid as a useful and cost-effective platform for production of animal vaccines, PLoS ONE [P], vol 7, issue 4, Public Library of Science, United States, pp. 1-14.

Sarvestani, S., Williams, B.R.G., Gantier, M.P.M., 2012, Human Toll-like receptor 8 can be cool too: implications for foreign RNA sensing, Journal of Interferon and Cytokine Research [P], vol 32, issue 8, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Publishers, United States, pp. 350-361.

Zheng, Y., Wang, Z., Deng, L., Yuan, X., Ma, Y., Zhang, G., Gantier, M.P.M., Liu, J., Shen, L., Xu, D., 2012, Osteopontin promotes inflammation in patients with acute coronary syndrome through its activity on IL-17 producing cells, European Journal Of Immunology [P], vol 42, issue 10, Wiley - V C H Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Germany, pp. 2803-2814.

Khairuddin, N., Gantier, M., Blake, S., Wu, S., Behlke, M., Williams, B., McMillan, N., 2012, siRNA-induced immunostimulation through TLR7 promotes antitumoral activity against HPV-driven tumors in vivo, Immunology And Cell Biology [P], vol 90, issue 2, Nature Publishing Group, United Kingdom, pp. 187-196.

Gantier, M., McCoy, C., Rusinova, I., Saulep, D., Wang, D., Xu, D., Irving, A., Behlke, M., Hertzog, P., Mackay-Fisson, F., Williams, B., 2011, Analysis of microRNA turnover in mammalian cells following Dicer1 ablation, Nucleic Acids Research [P], vol 39, issue 13, Oxford University Press, United Kingdom, pp. 5692-5703.

Gantier, M., Williams, B., 2011, Making sense of viral RNA sensing, Molecular Therapy [P], vol 19, issue 9, Nature Publishing Group, United Kingdom, pp. 1578-1581.

Gantier, M.P.M., Irving, A.T., Liaskos, M., Xu, D., Evans, V., Cameron, P.U., Bourne, J.A., Ferrero, R.L., John, M., Behlke, M.A., Williams, B.R.G., 2010, Genetic modulation of TLR8 response following bacterial phagocytosis, Human Mutation [P], vol 31, issue 9, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., USA, pp. 1069-1079.

Gantier, M.P.M., 2010, New perspectives in MicroRNA regulation of innate immunity, Journal of Interferon and Cytokine Research [P], vol 30, issue 5, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Publishers, USA, pp. 283-289.

Gantier, M.P.M., Tong, S., Behlke, M.A., Irving, A.T., Lappas, M., Nilsson, U.W., Latz, E., McMillan, N.A.J., Williams, B.R.G., 2010, Rational design of immunostimulatory siRNAs, Molecular Therapy [P], vol 18, issue 4, Nature Publishing Group, USA, pp. 785-795.

Jones, K.L., Roche, M., Gantier, M.P.M., Begum, N.A., Honjo, T., Caradonna, S., Williams, B.R., Mak, J., 2010, X4 and R5 HIV-1 have distinct post-entry requirements for uracil DNA glycosylase during infection of primary cells, Journal Of Biological Chemistry [P], vol 285, issue 24, American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Inc., USA, pp. 18603-18614.

Gantier, M.P.M., Williams, B.R.G., 2009, siRNA delivery not Toll-free, Nature Biotechnology [P], vol 27, issue 10, Nature Publishing Group, USA, pp. 911-912.

Zamanian-Daryoush, M., Marques, J.T., Gantier, M.P.M., Behlke, M.A., John, M., Rayman, P., Finke, J., Williams, B.R.G., 2008, Determinants of cytokine induction by small interfering RNA in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells, Journal of Interferon & Cytokine Research, vol 28, issue 4, Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Publishers, USA, pp. 221-233.

Armstrong, M.E., Gantier, M.P.M., Li, L., Chung, W.Y., McCann, A., Baugh, J.A., Donnelly, S.C., 2008, Small interfering RNAs induce macrophage migration inhibitory factor production and proliferation in breast cancer cells via a double-stranded RNA-dependent protein kinase-dependent mechanism, Journal of Immunology, vol 180, issue 11, American Association of Immunologists, USA, pp. 7125-7133.

Gantier, M.P.M., Tong, S., Behlke, M.A., Xu, D., Phipps, S., Foster, P.S., Williams, B.R.G., 2008, TLR7 is involved in sequence-specific sensing of single-stranded RNAs in human macrophages, Journal of Immunology, vol 180, issue 4, American Association of Immunologists, USA, pp. 2117-2124.

Gantier, M.P.M., Sadler, A.J., Williams, B.R.G., 2007, Fine-tuning of the innate immune response by microRNAs, Immunology and Cell Biology, vol 85, issue 6, Nature Publishing Group, New York, NY, USA, pp. 458-462.

Gantier, M.P.M., Baugh, J.A., Donnelly, S.C., 2007, Nuclear transcription of long hairpin RNA triggers innate immune responses, Journal of Interferon and Cytokine Research, vol 27, issue 9, Mary Ann Liebert Inc, USA, pp. 789-797.

Gantier, M.P.M., Williams, B.R.G., 2007, The response of mammalian cells to double-stranded RNA, Cytokine and Growth Factor Reviews, vol 18, issue 5-6, Elsevier, Oxford UK, pp. 363-371.

Baugh, J.A., Gantier, M.P.M., Li, L., Byrne, A., Buckley, A., Donnelly, S.C., 2006, Dual regulation of macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) expression in hypoxia by CREB and HIF-1, Biochemical And Biophysical Research Communicat..., vol 347, issue 4, Academic Press Inc Elsevier Science, USA, pp. 895-903.

Grants

Title:
microRNA regulation of antiviral responses.
Investigators:
Gantier, M
Funding:
(2012 - 2016). National Health & Medical Research Council (NHMRC).

Postgraduate Research Supervisions

Current Supervision

Program of Study:
(DOCTORATE BY RESEARCH).
Thesis Title:
Sensing of foreign RNAs by toll-like receptor (TLR) 7/8 and therapeutic applications.
Supervisors:
Williams, B (Main), Gantier, M (Associate).