The University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, QLD Ray Steptoe undertook undergraduate studies in Anatomy and Human Biology and postgraduate studies in Immunology at the University of Western Australia. After Postdoctoral training at the Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute in Pittsburgh, USA, he returned to Australia to pursue research in autoimmune diabetes at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. In 2004, he moved to Brisbane to take up a Research Fellowship at the University of Queensland Diamantina Institute (UQDI). Dr Steptoe heads the Autoimmunity and Tolerance Group investigating how pathogenic immune responses can be turned off and basic mechanisms of peripheral T-cell tolerance. Dr Steptoe is a current recipient of an ARC Future Fellowship.