Katharina Gaus (12 July 1972 – 3 March 2021)^[3] was a German-Australian immunologist and molecular microscopist. She was an NHMRC Senior Research Fellow^[4] and founding head of the Cellular Membrane Biology Lab, part of the Centre for Vascular Research at the University of New South Wales.^[5] Gaus used new super-resolution fluorescence microscopes^[6][7][8] to examine the plasma membrane within intact living cells, and study cell signalling at the level of single molecules to better understand how cells "make decisions".^[9] A key discovery of Gaus and her team was how T-cells decide to switch on the body's immune system to attack diseases.^[10][11] Her work is of importance to the development of drugs that can work with T-cells in support of the immune system.^[9]

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Gaus studied physics and mathematics at the University of Heidelberg, Germany and a MPhil (1996) and PhD (1999) from the Institute of Biotechnology^[12] at the University of Cambridge.^[2] While there she created a biosensor to detect protein-protein interactions and a ligand library, useful as a diagnostic tool.^[12]

Following her studies at the University of Cambridge, Katharina joined the Cell Biology Group at the Heart Research Institute in Sydney, Australia, led by Roger Dean and Wendy Jessup.^[13] Around 2002, she moved with Wendy Jessup's group to the Centre for Vascular Research at the University of New South Wales.^[12]

She received several fellowships, spending three months of 2001 at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, working with Enrico Gratton before returning to Australia to take up an Australian Research Council postdoctoral fellowship.^[14] In 2005 Gaus was awarded an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellowship and spent six months at the Max Planck Institute for Cell Biology and Genetics in Dresden, Germany,^[14] working in the laboratory of Kai Simons.^[13]

As of 2005, Gaus founded the Cellular Membrane Biology Lab, part of the Centre for Vascular Research at the University of New South Wales.^[12][13] As of 2009 she became a senior research fellow and associate professor of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in Australia.^[13]

Gaus was a member of the Australian Centre for NanoMedicine, founded in 2011, which is based at the University of New South Wales.^[15] She was also deputy director and a chief investigator of the ARC Centre of Excellence in Advanced Molecular Imaging.^[16]

Gaus was active in encouraging girls to enter scientific fields.^[17]

Gaus was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS) in 2015.^[18]

She died on 3 March 2021 aged 48.^[19][20]

• 2013, Elizabeth Blackburn Fellowship – Biomedical 2013 (NHMRC Research Excellence Award)^[4][9]
• 2013, NSW Science and Engineering Award for Excellence in Biological Sciences,^[1] from the New South Wales Government^[21]
• 2012 Gottschalk Medal for outstanding research in the medical sciences, from the Australian Academy of Science^[6]
• 2010, Young Investigator Award from the Australia and New Zealand Society for Cell and Developmental Biology^[4][12]
• 2005, Tall Poppy Award, encouraging young Australian scientists^[22]
• 2005, ARC Early Researcher Award^[19]