Rate My Professor Ashraful Haque

Associate Professor Ashraful Haque heads the Haque Laboratory in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology, School of Biomedical Sciences, at the University of Melbourne's Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, where he also leads the Bacterial and Parasitic Infections theme. With over 25 years of experience in biomedical research focusing on host-pathogen interactions, Haque completed his PhD in 2002 on Salmonella pathogenesis with Professor Gordon Dougan at Imperial College London. He then pursued postdoctoral studies at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, examining cellular immune responses to Burkholderia pseudomallei. In 2005, he moved to Australia, joining QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute in Brisbane to study protozoan parasites including Leishmania and Plasmodium under Christian Engwerda. Receiving his first NHMRC grant in 2010, he launched his independent laboratory in 2012 as an NHMRC Career Development Fellow. In 2020, Haque relocated his group to the Doherty Institute.

The Haque Lab investigates adaptive immune responses using single-cell RNA-sequencing, spatial transcriptomics, and computational analyses to understand T and B cell differentiation and function in contexts of malaria, other infections, cancer, and graft-versus-host disease. Ongoing projects include mechanisms of CD4+ T cell memory during malaria, parasite perception of host immunity, and pathogenic CD4+ T cells in acute GVHD. His influential publications encompass "CD4+ T cells display a spectrum of recall dynamics during re-infection" (Nature Communications, 2024), "Plasmodium infection induces phenotypic, clonal, and spatial reorganization of splenic TFH cells" (Cell Reports, 2024), "Clone tracking through repeated malaria identifies high-fidelity memory CD4 T cell responses" (Science Immunology, 2025), and "Deconvoluting TCR-dependent and -independent activation is vital for reliable Ag-specific CD4+ T cell characterization by AIM assay" (Science Advances, 2025). Haque's work is supported by continuous NHMRC Project and Ideas Grants, ARC Discovery funding, a 2024 NIH grant studying malaria in Ugandan children, and Doherty Institute initiatives. In 2024, he was awarded the University of Melbourne Deans Award for Excellence in Graduate Research and the Doherty Internal Award for Innovation & Initiative. He contributes to the field as Honorary Secretary of the Australian Society for Immunology Council and through speaking engagements such as the Spatial Biology Congress Asia.