Boris Novakovic is the Team Leader within the Infection Immunity and Global Health Theme at MCRI. As an epigeneticist, I am fascinated by the ability of differentiated cells to respond and remember their environment and I published over 100 papers on this topic since 2008. During my PhD (2009-13) I was involved in human twin research that showed that genetically identical individuals can be epigenetically distinct at birth. This was an important milestone in the field, because it showed that small differences in the microenvironment in the uterus can shape human chromatin. My thesis was the Department of Paediatrics’ nomination for the University of Melbourne Chancellor’s Prize in 2013. In 2014 I was awarded my first Fellowship and used it to join the lab of Prof Henk Stunnenberg (Radboud University, The Netherlands) who at the time was leading the large European Commission BLUEPRINT Project that aimed to profile the epigenomes of all blood cell types. It was here that I started collaborating with the lab of Prof Mihai Netea (Radboud University), the pioneer of Trained Immunity. A revolutionary idea in immunity, Trained Immunity was introduced in 2012 and explains how innate immune cells, such as monocytes, can remember specific microbial or danger signals by remodeling their epigenome. My main contribution was to show that beta-glucan, a sugar found in yeast, can be used to reverse sepsis-induced immunological tolerance in vitro. This unique finding was published in Cell and is a proof-of-principle that Trained Immunity compounds can be used as therapeutics. This led to successful industry-academic collaborations to explore how trained immunity can be used to program monocytes in disease. I decided to return to Australia because I saw an opportunity to apply my unique skills to large paediatric cohorts, which is one area where Australia leads the world. As a result, I was awarded an Australian NHMRC Project Grant in 2018 and a NHMRC Investigator Grant in 2019 to study epigenetic remodeling in children in response to vaccines, complex disease, and hormonal change. In 2019 I became Team Leader at MCRI and in 2022 I was promoted to Associate Professor at the Department of Paediatrics. I currently lead a team of 6 (3 research assistants, 2 Masters and 1 PhD student) and co-supervise 3 PhD students.