Dr Margaret Hughes

NHMRC Senior Research Officer
Member of the Respiratory Research Group

Qualifications

BSc (Hon), PhD

Contact Details

University of Sydney
Phone: +61 2 9351 2323 (office)
Phone: +61 2 9351 3848 (laboratory)
Fax: +61 2 9351 4391
Email:
Room S224 (Lab: S221)
Pharmacy Building A15
The University of Sydney
NSW 2006 Australia

Background

Dr Hughes, with more than 35 years research experience, has a passion for research, particularly cell biology, and enjoys sharing these passions with students and colleagues as well as contributing to the research and wider community. Dr Hughes is a member of the Respiratory Research Group (RRG) and a Research Academic in the Faculty of Pharmacy and is funded by the NHMRC. She graduated with a BSc (Hons) in 1971 and then worked for many years in research at various Sydney hospitals and CSIRO. She returned to Sydney University and completed her PhD in 1992. Highlights included establishing the first oestrogen receptor testing service in NSW and preparing a research laboratory and training 4 scientists to conduct lymphocyte function testing for an HIV vaccine clinical trial.

Research Interests

Dr Hughes’ research field changed from cancer drug resistance to asthma as she joined Professors Armour and Black and the RRG at the end of her PhD candidature. She brought different techniques with her and together with her collaborators continues to develop new techniques for the group eg cell division tracking and intracellular cytokine detection and mast cell isolation. Highlights include: establishing for the first time that corticosteroids inhibit IL-5 gene expression, which explains their efficacy in reducing airway eosinophilia in asthma; in collaboration with Pete Johnson et al., demonstrating by flow cytometry that airway smooth muscle cells from asthmatics grow faster than those from non-asthmatics which was the first indication of an intrinsic abnormality in airway smooth muscle which could contribute to the changes in asthmatic airways; most recently, in collaboration with Professor Chris Brightling in the UK, identifying key chemokines involved in mast cell localisation to airway smooth muscle in asthma.

Dr Hughes regularly reviews papers for the top respiratory journals and grant applications for NHMRC, ARC, NZ HRC and various Asthma Foundations.Dr Hughes served as a member of the NHMRC Pharmacology and Training Fellowships Grant Review Panels in 2003-4 and 2008 respectively.

Higher Degree Research Candidates

• Alkhouri, Hatem
  Doctor of Philosophy
  "Airway smooth muscle and mast cells in asthma."
  Start: July 2006
  Submit: July 2011
  Secondary Supervisor: Armour

Select Journal Articles

1. Shaw JM (maiden name), Halley JBW and Irving MG (1979). Oestrogen receptor protein in breast cancer: a local study. Pathology 11, 181-190.
2. Hughes JM and Tattersall MHN (1989). Potentiation of methotrexate lymphocytotoxicity in vitro by inhibitors of nucleoside transport. Br J Cancer 59, 381-384.
3. Rolfe FG, Hughes JM, Armour CL, Sewell WA (1992). Inhibition of interleukin 5 gene expression by dexamethasone. Immunology 77, 494-499.
4. Hughes JM, Rimmer SJ, Salome CM, Hodge L, Liu-Brennan D, Woolcock AJ, Armour CL (2001). Eosinophilia, interleukin-5 and tumour necrosis factor-alpha in asthmatic children. Allergy 56, 412-418.
5. Johnson PRA, Roth M, Tamm M, Hughes JM, Ge Q, King G, Black JL (2001). Airway smooth muscle cell proliferation is increased in asthma. Amer J Respir Crit Care Med 164, 474-477.
6. Sukkar MB, Stanley AJ, Blake AE, Johnson PRA, Hodgkin PD, Armour CL, Hughes JM (2004). Proliferative and synthetic airway smooth muscle cells are over-lapping populations. Immunol Cell Biol 82, 471-478.
7. Burgess JK, Blake AE, Boustany S, Johnson PRA, Armour CL, Black JL, Hunt NH, Hughes JM (2005). Increased expression of CD40 and Ox40 ligand on asthmatic airway smooth muscle following stimulation with tumour necrosis factor : modulation by interleukin1. J Allergy Clin Immunol .115: 302-308.
8. Brightling CE, Ammit AJ, Berger P, Kaur D, Morgan AJ, Black JL, Wardlaw AJ, Hughes JM, Bradding P (2005). The chemokines CXCL10 (IP-10) is a novel mast cell chemoattractant preferentially secreted by asthmatic compared to normal airway smooth muscle. Amer Respir Crit Care Med171:1103-1108.
9. Sutcliffe A, Kaur D, Page S, Woodman L, Baraket M, Armour CL, Wardlaw A, Bradding P, Hughes JM, Brightling CE (2006). Mast cell migration to Th2-cytokine stimulated airway smooth muscle from asthmatics. Thorax 61:657-662.
10. Chhabra J, Li Y-Z, Alkhouri H, Blake AE, Ge Q, Armour CL, Hughes JM (2007). Histamine and tryptase modulate asthmatic airway smooth muscle GM-CSF and RANTES release. Eur Respir J 29: 861-870. (Subject of editorial – Bradding P. Eur Resp J 2007; 29:827-830).