Adrian Liston

Adrian Liston is a Belgian immunologist and professor at the KU Leuven (Leuven, Belgium). He is head of the VIB Translational Immunology Laboratory.
Liston obtained a PhD at the Australian National University in 2005. He did a Postdoc at the University of Washington in Seattle, United States. He became Director of the Translational Immunology Laboratory in 2009. Liston is an advocate for both animal rights and also the use of animals in medical research.
His main research interests are in the fields of autoimmunity, primary immune deficiencies and diabetes. Liston led the discovery of Pyrin-associated autoinflammation with neutrophilic dermatosis, a previously unknown auto-inflammatory disease caused by mutation in the gene MEFV. Liston is also known for identifying genetic fragility of pancreatic beta cells as a cause of diabetes. In 2016, Liston led a team that found that cohabitation modified the immune system, making partners more similar to each other. His research team has emphasized the role of the environment over genes in shaping the immune system. In 2017, his team identified novel mutations in the gene STAT2 which lead to primary immunodeficiency.

In 2015, Liston won the Dr. Karel-Lodewijk Prize. In 2016, Liston was awarded the Eppendorf Young European Investigator Award for his work in elucidating key mechanisms by which the immune system avoids attacking the body while remaining effective against pathogens. In 2015-2016, Liston was awarded a Franqui Chair to lecture at the Université libre de Bruxelles.