Rate My Professor Matt Sweet

Professor Matt Sweet is an NHMRC Leadership Fellow and Group Leader at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience at the University of Queensland. He obtained his PhD in 1996 from the University of Queensland under the supervision of Professor David Hume, researching gene regulation in macrophages, and holds a Bachelor of Science with Advanced Honours from the same institution. Following a short postdoctoral position at the University of Queensland on macrophage activation by pathogen products, he undertook a CJ Martin Postdoctoral Fellowship with Professor Eddy Liew at the University of Glasgow. Returning to the University of Queensland, he served as UQ node head for the Cooperative Research Centre for Chronic Inflammatory Diseases from 2007 to 2008 and was appointed Group Leader at the Institute for Molecular Bioscience in 2007. He has held several leadership roles there, including Director of Higher Degree Research from 2021 to 2025, member of the Senior Executive Committee from 2023 to 2025, founding Director of the Centre for Inflammation and Disease Research from 2014 to 2018, and Deputy Head of the Division of Cell Biology and Molecular Medicine from 2014 to 2018.

Professor Sweet's research examines innate immunity, focusing on macrophages and their roles in detecting and responding to infection and inflammation through pathways such as Toll-like receptor signaling, histone deacetylases, immunometabolism, and antimicrobial responses including zinc toxicity against pathogens like Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium and uropathogenic Escherichia coli. He has published over 180 journal articles and book chapters, accumulating approximately 22,000 citations, with key works including "Mammalian lipid droplets are innate immune hubs integrating cell metabolism and host defense" (Science, 2020), "HDAC7 is an immunometabolic switch triaging danger signals for engagement of antimicrobial versus inflammatory responses in macrophages" (PNAS, 2023), and "Inducible antibacterial responses in macrophages" (Nature Reviews Immunology, 2025). His fellowships include an ARC Future Fellowship, two NHMRC Senior Research Fellowships, and the NHMRC Leadership Fellowship, alongside awards such as the Society for Leukocyte Biology prize for mentorship in 2021 and the UQ Award for Excellence in Graduate Research Leadership in 2025. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Leukocyte Biology and Seminars in Cell and Developmental Biology and has contributed to NHMRC grant review panels and numerous conference organizing committees.