Rate My Professor Kate Schroder

Professor Kate Schroder heads the Inflammasome Laboratory and serves as Director of the Centre for Inflammation and Disease Research at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience, University of Queensland, as an NHMRC Leadership Fellow. She earned her BSc in 1998, first-class Honours in 1999, and PhD in Immunology in 2005 from the University of Queensland. During her graduate studies with Professor David Hume, she defined novel mechanisms of macrophage activation by CpG DNA. Her postdoctoral research with Professors Hume and Sweet identified key inter-species divergences in the inflammatory programs of human versus mouse macrophages. As an NHMRC CJ Martin Fellow in Switzerland, Schroder trained with Jürg Tschopp, the pioneer of inflammasome biology. She was appointed Lab Head at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience in 2013. Schroder previously chaired the Institute's Diversity and Inclusion Committee from 2018 to 2020 and serves on editorial boards for Science Signaling, Clinical and Translational Immunology, and Cell Death & Disease.

The Schroder laboratory investigates the molecular mechanisms governing inflammasome activity, caspase activation, and cellular mediators of inflammasome-dependent inflammation, including cytokine maturation, pyroptosis, apoptosis, and unconventional protein secretion. Research encompasses inflammasome function during microbial infection, host-pathogen interactions, neutrophil roles in antimicrobial defense, and dysfunction in human inflammatory diseases such as gout, diabetes, neurodegenerative disorders, cancer, and autoinflammatory conditions. The group develops strategies for inflammasome inhibition using cellular pathways and small molecule inhibitors. Schroder has co-authored over 140 publications cited more than 35,000 times, including landmark works such as 'The inflammasomes' (Cell, 2010, with Jürg Tschopp), 'A small-molecule inhibitor of the NLRP3 inflammasome for the treatment of inflammatory diseases' (Nature Medicine, 2015, with Rebecca C. Coll et al.), and 'MCC950 directly targets the NLRP3 ATP-hydrolysis motif for inflammasome inhibition' (Nature Chemical Biology, 2019, with Rebecca C. Coll et al.). A Clarivate Highly Cited Researcher, her accolades include the 2022 Women in Technology Excellence in Science Award, 2020 Nancy Millis Award for Women in Science, 2019 ANZSCDB Emerging Leader Award, 2019 Merck Research Medal, 2014 Milstein Young Investigator Award, 2013 Tall Poppy Award, 2012 Gordon Ada Career Award, and 2008 Society for Leukocyte Biology Dolph Adams Award. As co-inventor on patents for NLRP3 inflammasome inhibitors, her discoveries underpin Inflazome Ltd's portfolio, acquired by Roche, with drug candidates advancing in clinical trials for cardiovascular disease, arthritis, Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and motor neuron disease.