Centre for Immunology

A seeding grant enabling the establishment of the Centre for Immunology in Sydney.

The project was the foundation’s “flagship first grant” and signified the substantial steps that could be taken in cancer research in Australia in major infrastructure, equipment and technology.

Achievements

• Establishment of a research institute of the highest international reputation specialising in a variety of cancers including myeloma, leukaemia, bladder and ovarian.
• Identification of novel blood-based secreted proteins which can serve as diagnostic markers for cancer.
• Investigated the effects of non-thermal levels of electromagnetic radiation on cancer initiation.
• Explored the chronic effect of heat shock proteins, released as a normal defence response to cellular stress, have on the induction, promotion and spread of cancer cells and/or resistance to anti-cancer drugs.
• Human clinical trials of a p53 vaccine. Mutations in the p53 gene are involved in up to half of all cancers.
• Investigation of the MLH1 tumour suppressor gene, including making discoveries concerning the inactivation of this gene in cancer cells.
• First to clone cytokine MIC-1. Measurement of MIC-1 was subsequently found to be a useful diagnostic tool in cancer studies involving colon, prostate and pancreatic cancer.