The University of Adelaide (Adelaide Uni)

Australia

The University of Adelaide is a world-class research and teaching institution situated in the heart of one of the world’s most liveable cities. Founded in 1874, we are Australia’s third oldest university, South Australia’s clear research leader, and consistently rank inside the world’s top 140.

Our reputation for breaking new ground has been forged by a continuous stream of exceptional people. We count among our alumni five Nobel Laureates, over 140 Fulbright Scholars and more than 100 Rhodes Scholars, including Australia’s first female Indigenous recipient. The country’s first female prime minister and Supreme Court judge were also University of Adelaide graduates.

We currently have 14 Clarivate Highly Cited Researchers (2020), and, since 2001 our academics have received 11 coveted Australian Research Council Federation and Laureate Fellowships.

Today, our high-achieving culture continues to attract the world’s best and brightest- discipline leaders from around the globe and close to 8,000 international students from more than 90 countries, representing around 29% of our near-27,000 total student body.

Research impact

The University of Adelaide is committed to conducting future-making research with global impact. A member of Australia’s prestigious Group of Eight (Go8) research-intensive universities, we address the world’s greatest challenges.

Our researchers work closely across multiple disciplines and in productive partnership with industry, government and leading institutions around the globe.
The resulting outputs are universally rated ‘world standard or above’ by the Australian Government’s Excellence in Research for Australia assessment (2018). This includes the highest possible rating in 41 distinct fields, spanning engineering, mathematics, science, medical and health sciences, agriculture and artificial intelligence.

Importantly, our work generates tangible community benefit. A London Economics report commissioned by the Go8 in 2018 valued our total contribution to South Australia’s economy at over AUS$4.23 billion.

* 2020 Times Higher Education world university rankings and the QS rankings

1 April 2020 - 31 March 2021

Region: Global
Subject/journal group: All

The table to the right includes counts of all research outputs for The University of Adelaide (Adelaide Uni) published between 1 April 2020 - 31 March 2021 which are tracked by the Nature Index.

Note: Articles may be assigned to more than one subject area.

Count	Share
249	40.68

Highlight of the month

A new target for cancer immunotherapy

: © ROGER HARRIS/SCIENCE PHOTO LIBRARY/Getty Images

A protein that regulates levels of immune signalling molecules in the tumour surroundings offers a new target for anti-cancer immunotherapy.

Despite showing immense clinical promise, cancer drugs that promote the activity of ‘killer’ T cells have limited efficacy against some tumours in which the immune cells seem to be kept at bay by some kind of molecular signal.

Now, a University of Adelaide-team has identified that signal as atypical chemokine receptor 4 (ACKR4).

In the tumour microenvironment, this receptor protein shapes the abundance and distribution of a signalling molecule called CCL21, which in turn affects the retention of dendritic cells, a type of immune cell that regulates the responsiveness of cancer-killing T cells.

In the absence of ACKR4, killer T cells flood into tumours, inhibiting their growth.

Drugs that block ACKR4 — or, alternatively, boost levels of CCL21 — could thus work in tandem with other cancer immunotherapies to supercharge T cell activity.

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