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Contact Details

Phone
+64 3 479 7726
Email
merilyn.hibma@otago.ac.nz
Position
Professor
Department
Department of Pathology (Dunedin)
Qualifications
BSc MSc PhD(Otago)
Research summary
Immune regulation and its contribution to skin pathogenesis

Research

Merilyn is a Professor in the Department of Pathology, Dunedin School of Medicine. She worked for the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in University of Cambridge with Lionel Crawford (FRS), before being awarded an HRC Repatriation Fellowship and returning to the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Otago. In 2014 she was appointed to the Department of Pathology.

Her research interests include viral regulation of cell function and immunity in the skin, with a particular emphasis on human papillomavirus (HPV) and cancer. HPV causes persistent infections of cutaneous and mucosal skin and is the causal agent of cervical cancer. Although an effective prophylactic vaccine has been developed for the major cancer-causing HPV types, there is a continuing need for better therapeutics for HPV to address the health needs of individuals who are already infected with this high-prevalence virus. Understanding viral regulation of immunity by HPV and developing better immunotherapeutics to treat HPV are the focus of her research.

Publications

Lawton, B., MacDonald, E. J., Storey, F., Stanton, J.-A., Adcock, A., Gibson, M., … King, F., … Watson, H., Bennett, M., Lambert, C. S., Geller, S., Paasi, I., Hibma, M., Sykes, P., Hawkes, D., & Saville, M. (2023). A model for empowering rural solutions for cervical cancer prevention (He Tapu Te Whare Tangata): Protocol for a cluster randomized crossover trial. JMIR Research Protocols, 12, e51643. doi: 10.2196/51643 Journal - Research Other

Saito, M., Rajesh, A., Innes, C., van der Griend, R., Fitzgerald, P., Simcock, B., Sykes, P., & Hibma, M. (2023). The high-risk human papillomavirus type influences the tissue microenvironment in cervical intraepithelial neoplasia grade 2. Viruses, 15, 1953. doi: 10.3390/v15091953 Journal - Research Article

Ticar, V. S., Tschirley, A., Wilson, M., du Plessis, A., & Hibma, M. (2023). Case report: An adverse response to cyclosporin A treatment in BALB/cJ mice. Laboratory Animals. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1177/00236772231177857 Journal - Research Other

Speck, P., Mackenzie, J., Bull, R. A., Slobedman, B., Drummer, H., Fraser, J., … Hibma, M., … Ward, V., … Young, P. (2023). Statement in support of: "Virology under the microscope: A call for rational discourse". mSphere. Advance online publication. doi: 10.1128/msphere.00165-23 Journal - Professional & Other Non-Research Articles

Speck, P., Mackenzie, J., Bull, R. A., Slobedman, B., Drummer, H., Fraser, J., … Hibma, M., … Ward, V., … Young, P. (2023). Statement in support of: "Virology under the microscope: A call for rational discourse". mBio, 14(3). doi: 10.1128/mbio.00815-23 Journal - Professional & Other Non-Research Articles

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