Translational Renal Research
Associate Professor Aron Chakera
Translational Renal Research
Associate Professor Aron Chakera
Profile
Dr Aron Chakera MBBS(Hon), MRCP, DPhil, PGDipLATHE, FRACP is a renal physician at Sir Charles Gairdner Hospital, with an interest in immune function as it relates to transplantation, autoimmune diseases, and peritoneal mesothelial cells. Prior to returning to Western Australia in 2012, he was the Clinical Lecturer in Renal Medicine at the University of Oxford, where he worked with Professor Richard Cornall studying lymphocyte subsets and responses to recall antigens in patients receiving immunosuppression.
Research Overview
Research in my group is focused on the immune system and how it is affected by immunosuppression. As infectious diseases are a common problem in immunosuppressed patients, by studying host responses to pathogens we can define levels of immune function that may predict the likelihood of disease and use this to better understand the factors that influence disease development.
The main areas of interest for the group are:
1. Host responses to common viruses causing disease after renal transplantation
2. Quantification of immune function through the assessment of recall antigen responses
3. Interactions between bacteria and peritoneal mesothelial cells and the development of peritoneal-dialysis related peritonitis
Research Projects
- The influence of multistrain cytomegalovirus infections on the immune repertoire: implications for organ transplantation
- A systematic analysis of interactions between common pathogens causing peritoneal-dialysis associated peritonitis and peritoneal mesothelial cells
- The safety and efficacy of intraperitoneal tPA and DNase in the treatment of PD-peritonitis, pre-clinical and phase 1 clinical studies
- Analysis of cell free DNA as an early marker of sepsis and endothelial cell function
Selected Publications
1. Chakera A, Bennett S, Morteau O. Bowness P, Luqmani R, Cornall RJ. 2012. The phenotype of circulating follicular-helper T cells in patients with rheumatoid arthritis defines CD200 as a potential therapeutic target. Clinical and Developmental Immunologydoi:10.1155/2012/948218. [Journal of Immunology Research]
2. Koneitzny R, Fischer R, Ternette N, Chakera A, Wright C, Turney BW, Hughes D, Kessler B, Pugh CW. 2012. Proteomic characterization of BK virus subtypes in the urine from renal transplant subjects. Clinical Proteomics 9(1):4. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
3. Chakera A, Dyar O-J, Hughes E, Bennett S, Hughes D, Roberts IR. 2011. Detection of polyomavirus BK reactivation following renal transplantation using an intensive decoy cell surveillance program is cost effective. Transplantation 92(9):1018-23. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
4. Chakera A, Bennett S, Cornall RJ. 2011. A whole blood monokine-based reporter assay provides a sensitive and robust measurement of the antigen-specific T cell response. Journal of Translational Medicine 9:143. doi: 10.1186/1479-5876-9-143. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
5. Chakera A, Lucas A, Lucas M. 2011. Surrogate markers of infection: interrogation of the immune system. Biomarkers in Medicine5(2):131-48. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
6. Morteau O, Blundell S, Chakera A, Bennett S, Christou CM, Mason PD, Cornall RJ, O’Callaghan CA. 2010. Renal transplant immunosuppression impairs natural killer cell function in vitro and in vivo. PLoS One 5(10):e13294. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
7. Watson AA, Christou CM, James JR, Fenton-May AE, Moncayo GE, Mistry AR, Davis SJ, Chakera A, O’Callaghan CA. 2009. The Platelet Receptor CLEC-2 is Active as a Dimer. Biochemistry 48(46):10988-96. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
8. Chakera A, Seeber RM, John AE, Eidne KA, Greaves DR. 2008. The Duffy Antigen/Receptor for Chemokines (DARC) exists in an oligomeric form in living cells and functionally antagonises CCR5 signalling through hetero-oligomerization. Molecular Pharmacology 73(5):1262-70. [NCBI PubMed Entry]
