Prof Fabienne Mackay Ph D, Chair Head of Department – Immunology Prof Mackay obtained her Ph D in 1994 at the Louis Pasteur University in Strasbourg. In 1994, Prof Mackay joined BiogenIdec Inc in Boston where she dissected the role of a TNF-like ligand lymphotoxin-alpha/beta in autoimmunity and cancer. In 2000, Prof Mackay joined the Garvan Institute in Sydney as a Wellcome Trust senior research fellow and was awarded a NHMRC program grant. She was appointed director of the Autoimmunity Research Unit. Prof Mackay’s lab at Garvan discovered the role of a new molecule named BAFF/BLyS as a key B cell survival factor essential for the maturation of B-lymphocytes but also playing a role in autoimmunity, and became one the leading group on BAFF research. Belimumab, a BAFF inhibitor, was approved on March 9th 2011, and is the first new treatment for lupus in over 50 years. In 2008-09, she was a NSW director for the Australian Society of Medical Research. In 2009, Prof Mackay became the 5th Chair of the Department of Immunology at Monash University. Her current group has a program studying the role of B cell subsets and innate immunity in immune tolerance, autoimmunity. Her laboratory recently developed an interest in restoring immuno-competency in patients with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia. Prof Mackay is a NHMRC Senior Research Fellow and has authored over 120 articles/reviews/book chapters, many in high impact factor journals such as Nature, Science, J. Exp. Medicine, Immunity. Her h-index is 51, with over 10,635 citations, an average of 95 citations per article. In 2012, Fabienne Mackay received the Thomson Reuters Australia citation and innovation award. In 2014, Fabienne Mackay received the trophy for exceptional contribution to education and research as a French expatriate at the French ministry of foreign affairs in Paris.