In the middle of the nineteenth century, Englishman Walter Hall (1831-1911), came to Australia to seek his fortune in the gold rush. Much of Hall's wealth came from Queensland's Mt Morgan gold mine, but he also acquired substantial holdings in the booming pastoral industry. His entrepreneurial skills extended to transport - Hall was the last owner of Cobb & Co, the horse-drawn coach line of Australian history and folklore.

Hall's widow, Eliza, was persuaded by Richard Casey (father of Lord Casey of Berwick) to establish a million-pound charitable trust. After her death, Casey and Harry Allen, Dean of Medicine at The University of Melbourne, organised for a small portion of the trust's annual income to be used to found an institute of medical research.

In April 1915 the then-new Melbourne Hospital in Lonsdale St agreed to provide a home for the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Research in Pathology and Medicine, as it was then known. Tragically, a few days later, the new Institute's director-designate, Gordon C.Mathieson, suffered fatal wounds in the ANZAC landing at Gallipoli.

The Hall Institute's operations were delayed until the first full-time director, Dr Sydney Patterson, took up his post in 1919. Patterson's directorship was short-lived - he resigned and returned to England in 1923. There have been only four directors since - Professor Charles Kellaway (1923-44), Nobel Laureate Sir Macfarlane Burnet (1944-1965), Sir Gustav Nossal (1965-1996) and the current director, Professor Suzanne Cory.

Charles Kellaway, a Melbourne graduate, had been working with Sir Henry Dale at the National Institute of Medical Research in London. Fired by this experience, he was determined to establish a tradition of full-time biomedical research in Australia. He formed three departments: physiology & pharmacology, headed by himself; biochemistry, headed by Henry Holden (from Cambridge); and bacteriology, headed by the young Macfarlane Burnet, until then a pathology registrar.

Research at the fledgling Institute centred initially around hydatid disease and venoms of snakes, spiders and mussels. In 1925, Kellaway sent Burnet to the Lister Institute, where he worked on bacteriophages and secured his PhD. Upon his return, Burnet continued to make seminal discoveries in bacterial and phage genetics,and moved into virology.

Four of the small staff , Kellaway, Wilhelm Feldberg (a refugee from Nazi Germany), Hamilton Fairley and Burnet were to become Fellows of the Royal Society.

Until 1939, the Institute was housed within the clinical pathology department in the old Melbourne Hospital. When the hospital moved to its new premises in Parkville, Kellaway seized the opportunity to gain new, custom-built laboratories.

In 1944, when Kellaway accepted an invitation to head the research laboratories of Wellcome Foundation Ltd in London, the torch was passed to Burnet. He had just returned from his first trip to the US, where he gave the Dunham Lectures at Harvard University.Ê

Realising the importance of a strong connection between basic science and clinical medicine, he established a Clinical Research Unit, headed by the gastroenterologist, Ian Wood.

He also imposed greater focus on the research directions of the Institute, centering it on influenza virus. Several notable appointments were made, including biochemists Alfred Gottschalk (another refugee from Germany); Gordon Ada; and virologists Frank Fenner, Gray Anderson, Eric French and Stephen Fazekas.

The younger scientists trained in Burnet's time included two who were destined to write their name in the history books: Donald Metcalf and Gustav Nossal.

Sir Macfarlane Burnet (centre) receiving his Nobel Prize with Sir Peter Medawar (second from right). The other winners are (left) Willard F Libby (Chemistry), (fourth from left) Donald A Glaser (Physics), (right) M St. John Perse (Literature). UPI Photo

The growing reputation of the Institute drew an increasing number of visiting scientists from overseas, including Carleton Gajduseck, John Cairns, Alick Isaacs and Barrie Marmion.

By 1957, Burnet felt the need for change. In the knowledge that viruses were only one side of the coin of disease, he decided to now concentrate on the flip side: the body's response to infection. He switched the focus of the Institute to immunology and published a seminal paper describing his clonal selection theory of antibody production. This theory was to have profound influence and the Institute became the world centre for immunology, contributing almost 50% of the immunology literature during the late 1950s and 1960s.

In 1960, Burnet was awarded the Nobel Prize with Peter Medawar for the discovery of immunological tolerance.

Burnet's successor was his former student, Gustav Nossal, appointed at the astonishingly young age of 34. In tune with the new era, Nossal set about a dramatic expansion and diversification of the Institute, which went from strength to strength.

The immune system remained a central theme. Nossal continued his own work on B cells and antibodies and elegantly demonstrated that a single lymphocyte makes only a single type of antibody. He explored how the immune system distinguishes 'self' from 'non-self' (for example, virus-infected cells), tolerating the former and fiercely attacking the latter.

Nossal brought back from England his outstanding Sydney contemporary, Jacques Miller, who had just discovered the role of the thymus in conferring immunity. Together with his student, Graham Mitchell, Miller went on to show that the T lymphocytes that developed in the thymus 'helped' B lymphocytes accomplish their task of making antibodies.

Ken Shortman succeeded Gordon Ada and established a new tradition in cell separation, which he used to trace the development of T cells in the thymus.

A major figure in autoimmunity, Ian Mackay, who had succeeded Ian Wood, continued clinical research on autoimmunity, initiated under Burnet. He was later succeeded by Len Harrison, who concentrated the group primarily on insulin-dependent diabetes.

Noel Warner established a strong base in immunogenetics and Thomas Mandel initiated transplantation biology.

Don Metcalf's research in haematology flowered, with the discovery and characterisation of the colony stimulating factors (CSFs), 'hormones' needed for blood cell production. His group trained many distinguished scientists, including Richard Stanley, Tony Burgess, Nicos Nicola and Glenn Begley. Their three decades of painstaking research from initial discovery of the CSFs to major clinical applications represents one of the outstanding sagas of Australian medical research.

Jerry Adams and Suzanne Cory introduced molecular biology, initially to investigate antibody production and later to study the origins of cancer. They pioneered genetic engineering in Australia and promoted the dissemination of molecular biology throughout the Institute.

Graham Mitchell founded a vigorous program in immunoparasitology, focussed on schistosomiasis, leishmaniasis and malaria. He was joined by many talented investigators, including Dave Kemp, Robin Anders, Alan Cowman, Graham Brown, Ross Coppel and Emanuela Handman. Their program enabled Australia to contribute to understanding of diseases endemic to the developing world.

Nossal appreciated the need for state-of-the-art technology and built up sophisticated centralised services. In the early 1980s, he and his Board successfully lobbied for the construction of a magnificent new building.

Nossal's outgoing personality and great gift for communication and public oratory, coupled with a formidable scientific intellect, made him Australia's foremost advocate for science. His influence and vision have created an enduring legacy.

Led from 1996 by cancer researcher Professor Suzanne Cory, the principal focus of the Institute remains immunology and the development and regulation of the blood cell and neuronal systems. Embracing the biotechnology revolution, the Institute has moved into new disciplines including bioinformatics, led by Terry Speed; the genetics of disease susceptibility, led by Simon Foote; structural biology, led by Peter Colman, and proteomics led by Richard Simpson in a partnership with the Ludwig Institute. A new off-site Biotechnology Centre provides expanded capacity for mouse genetics, medicinal chemistry and ‘incubator’ laboratories for early biotechnology development.
The Institute is thus well-placed to skilfully mine the Human Genome to progress its goals of developing more effective therapies for a range of important human diseases, including leukemia and lymphoma, breast cancer, insulin-dependent diabetes, coeliac disease, multiple sclerosis and other neurodegenerative diseases, malaria, leishmaniasis, and influenza. Major research strengths include cytokine signalling, multipotential stem cells, dendritic cells, malaria genetics and programmed cell death (apoptosis).

The Institute is held in high international regard and this is reflected in the many international honours and prizes bestowed on its faculty. Ten WEHI scientists are members of the Australian Academy of Science: Professor Jerry Adams, Professor Peter Colman, Professor Alan Cowman, Professor Suzanne Cory, Emeritus Professor Donald Metcalf, Emeritus Professor Jacques Miller, Professor Nick Nicola, Emeritus Professor Gus Nossal, Professor Ken Shortman and Professor Terry Speed. Five are also Fellows of The Royal Society (Adams, Cory, Metcalf, Miller and Nossal), four are Foreign Associates of the US National Academy of Sciences (Cory, Metcalf, Miller and Nossal) and two are Associate Foreign Members of the French Academy of Sciences (Cory and Nossal).

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