Godfrey is a Professor at The University of Melbourne and an NHMRC Senior Principal Research Fellow. He is also President of the Australasian Society for Immunology (ASI), a society with over 1000 members. Godfrey has published approximately 170 papers and has worked in the field of T cell biology for over 25 years, with a focus on T cell development and NKT cell biology. 

Godfrey’s major research contributions can be summarized as: 

• defined DN1-DN4 pathway of early T cell development and coined the term ‘β-selection’; 
  
• mapped the NKT development pathway, now accepted as the paradigm by essentially all thymus biologists; 
  
• demonstrated influence of NKT in several disease models including autoimmune diabetes and cancer; 
  
• revealed functionally distinct NKT subsets; demonstrated molecular bases of NKT TCR recognition of several lipid-based antigens; 
  
• identified new populations of NKT cells. 
  

In recent years, Godfrey has extended his studies of T cells to include Type 1 and Type 2 NKT cells, Gamma-delta T cells, CD1a, CD1b and CD1c restricted T cells, and Mucosal Associated Invariant T (MAIT) cells.