The Cory Era
Following Nossal’s retirement in 1996, Suzanne Cory became Director. Cory graduated in biochemistry from the University of Melbourne and trained in Cambridge and Geneva before joining the Institute in 1971. Since becoming Director, Cory has energetically promoted science policy and research at both the national and international level, serving on numerous boards and committees.
Under her leadership, the Institute has focused on four big global medical challenges: cancer, immunity, autoimmunity and infectious diseases. New disciplines have been embraced, including bioinformatics, structural biology, medicinal chemistry, genomics and large-scale targeted mutagenesis in the mouse, enabling a truly multidisciplinary approach to tackling human disease.
In immunology, a major focus has become the dendritic cell, which orchestrates immune responses, and transcriptional control of lymphoid cell fates. Andreas Strasser has revealed how immune responses are regulated by apoptosis, the natural program of cell death. Phil Hodgkin is pioneering an innovative systems biology approach to understand how the immune system operates.
In autoimmunity, novel vaccine approaches are being undertaken by Len Harrison for type 1 diabetes and Bob Anderson for coeliac disease and Ian Wicks has developed a promising new approach for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis.
The 25-year investment in malaria research is yielding exciting dividends. Alan Cowman and his team have been systematically inactivating malaria genes, to determine how best to cripple the parasite. With a consortium from the Seattle Biomedical Institute, Walter Reed Army Institute and Heidelberg University, they have developed an attenuated strain that will soon be trialed in human volunteers. In a complementary approach, Louis Schofield is developing a vaccine against a malaria toxin responsible for some of the tissue damage and pathology associated with malarial disease.
The cancer research programs are yielding promising new avenues for targeted therapies:
Enormous strides have been made by Nicos Nicola, Doug Hilton and Warren Alexander in understanding how cytokines and their receptors regulate normal blood cell production and how perturbation of the intracellular pathways they control can lead to cancer.
Geoff Lindeman and Jane Visvader and their team identified, for the first time, the breast stem cell and are investigating its role in breast cancer development.
The Institute has become a world leader in apoptosis research, following the discovery in 1988 by David Vaux with Cory and Jerry Adams that the gene causing human follicular lymphoma acts by blocking the central cell death pathway. Cancer drugs rely on activating apoptosis to kill cancer cells, which evolve a variety of mechanisms to resist. A large multidisciplinary team led by David Huang, Peter Colman, Keith Watson, Andrew Roberts, Andreas Strasser, Adams and Cory, is now engaged with major US pharmaceutical companies in developing small molecules that directly trigger apoptosis without causing concomitant damage to normal cells.
In order to more rapidly translate new discoveries into improved treatments and preventative strategies, increased effort has been devoted to establishing strong clinical and commercial links. A Clinical Translation Centre has been created to strengthen links with clinicians in The Royal Melbourne Hospital and elsewhere and a Biotechnology Centre established within the R&D Park at La Trobe University.
To foster excellence and innovation in science education in schools, Cory initiated a partnership to establish the Gene Technology Access Centre (GTAC), which provides innovative laboratory programs for nearly 7000 school students and professional development courses for over 600 science teachers every year.
Cory has led a major capital works program that will double the current footprint by 2010, to provide more research opportunities for the next generation of talented Australian scientists and greater benefits for patient world-wide.
