Rate My Professor Nathan Croft

Nathan Croft is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University, where he leads the Systems Immunology group within the Monash Biomedicine Discovery Institute. In the field of Biology, his work centers on understanding the factors that drive effective T cell responses to pathogens and tumors. He earned his PhD in Immunology from the University of Birmingham, UK, in 2009, with a thesis titled 'Immune Evasion By Epstein-Barr Virus -- Studies on BNLF2a.' After completing his doctorate, Croft joined Professor Tony Purcell's research group at the University of Melbourne, transitioning with the team to Monash University in 2012, where he has advanced to his current senior academic role.

Croft's research specializes in systems immunology, employing mass spectrometry-based proteomics and immunopeptidomics to investigate the MHC antigen processing pathway and its influence on T cell immunity. His group maps peptide repertoires from healthy, pathogen-infected cell lines, and tumor tissues, quantifying MHC-peptide abundance to elucidate its role in T cell response magnitude and efficacy. They develop bioinformatics tools and data repositories to predict peptide epitope generation and immunogenicity. Notable publications include 'Mapping the immunopeptidome of seven SARS-CoV-2 antigens across common HLA haplotypes' in Nature Communications (2024), 'Kinetics of antigen expression and epitope presentation during virus infection' in PLoS Pathogens (2013, 185 citations), 'A comprehensive review and performance evaluation of bioinformatics tools for HLA class I peptide-binding prediction' (2020, 194 citations), and 'Benchmarking Bioinformatics Pipelines in Data-Independent Acquisition Mass Spectrometry for Immunopeptidomics' in Molecular & Cellular Proteomics (2023). As Chief Investigator on an NHMRC Project Grant, Croft advances antigen presentation studies relevant to infection, cancer immunotherapy, and vaccine design. He has earned recognition for teaching excellence, including Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA) in 2021, Monash Student Association Teaching Awards in 2022, Outstanding Contribution to Enhancing Student Learning Award from Monash BDI in 2023, and contributions to the BCH2011 Teaching Team award.