Dr Nel receiving his PhD in Biomedical Sciences at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa in 2007, before completing a Postdoc at Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, examining mechanisms of immune regulation in asthma. Dr Nel moved to UQ, Frazer Institute, Brisbane Australia in 2011 to expand his research on immune regulation in autoimmune diseases. With a drive towards translational research, Dr Nel has been involved in the development of antigen-specific immunotherapies for the treatment of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA). Helping in the design of liposome nanoparticle therapies and their assessment in pre-clinical models, Dr Nel also developed antigen-specific T cell biomarker assays suitable to assess the clinical efficacy of such therapies before applying these assays in the characterization of the pre-clinical and clinical immune response in RA patients in a first in human Phase I clinical trial. In addition, Dr Nel is also involved the broadening of the antigen specific immune tolerance therapy toward treatment in type I diabetes, currently employed in a new Phase I clinical trial.