Hamish is a Research Fellow in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at the Doherty Institute. He currently leads a team within the laboratory of Prof. Jose Villadangos, where he investigates how the human immune system detects bacterial pathogens by a protein called ‘MR1’. Similar to a molecular alarm system our cells are equipped with, MR1 gets ‘triggered’ when it detects bacteria-specific molecules, which then alerts the immune system of the bacterial invasion. Hamish uses cell biology and biochemical techniques to understand this fundamental detection system, in order to develop immune-boosting treatments.