An exploration of genetic susceptibilities

This thesis describes research performed by myself, Simon Foote, from the completion of my PhD until the date of submission. The research was performed in three separate Institutes. The early work describing the mapping of the Human Genome and the preceding, introductory project mapping the Human Y Chromosome was performed at the Whitehead Institute, MIT, Cambridge, USA. This work was done in the laboratories of Professors David Page and Eric Lander. The work describing the host responses to infectious disease and the genetics of susceptibility to multiple sclerosis was performed in my own laboratory at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (WEHI), Melbourne, Australia and more recently at the Menzies Research Institute, University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia. This introductory chapter is not a review of the literature, but a synopsis of the work attached as copied, published articles. The state of play of the field at the time of publication of each of these articles can be found in the introduction and discussion of each of these papers. While this collection of papers may seem eclectic at first perusal, there is a strong genetics theme underpinning all these topics.