Rate My Professor Wael Awad

Dr. Wael Awad serves as a Research Fellow in the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at Monash University's Biomedicine Discovery Institute, a position he has held since November 2015 under the mentorship of ARC Australian Laureate Fellow Professor Jamie Rossjohn. He completed his BSc and MSc at Cairo University in Egypt and obtained his PhD from Lund University in Sweden through the European Commission’s Erasmus Mundus fellowship. His doctoral research focused on the structures and functions of glypicans, membrane-anchored proteins, earning him the Best PhD Thesis Award 2015 from MAX-IV Synchrotron Laboratory.

Awad's research expertise lies in protein biochemistry, cellular and structural biology, with a primary focus on the roles of small molecule metabolites as antigens in T cell immunity. He investigates how the MHC class I-related molecule MR1 binds and presents vitamin B precursors from microbial riboflavin biosynthesis to MR1-restricted T cells, including mucosal-associated invariant T (MAIT) cells. His laboratory employs protein expression and purification, X-ray crystallography, surface plasmon resonance, and advanced imaging techniques to elucidate antigen processing, presentation, and T cell recognition. As an Australian Research Council Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA) Fellow from 2022 to 2024, Awad has garnered several accolades, including the IUCr Young Scientist Award in 2018, the Robert Porter Early Career Researcher Publication Prize in 2021, the Robin Anders Young Investigator Award in 2021, and the Monash BDI Director's Highly Commended Publication Award in 2020. Notable publications include "The molecular basis underpinning the potency and specificity of MAIT cell antigens" (Nature Immunology, 2020), "Ligand-dependent downregulation of MR1 cell surface expression" (PNAS, 2020), "A class of γδ T cell receptors recognize the underside of the antigen-presenting molecule MR1" (Science, 2019), and "Absence of mucosal-associated invariant T cells in a person with a homozygous point mutation in MR1" (Science Immunology, 2020). His contributions have significantly influenced the field of structural immunology, providing molecular insights into immune responses relevant to infection, autoimmunity, cancer, and tissue repair.