Media Releases

Head of research group delivers prestigious oration

Professor Barbara Fazekas de St Groth, Head of the T-Cell group at Centenary Institute and Professor and Principal Research Fellow at the University of Sydney Medical School, was recently given the honour of presenting the Ian Mackay Oration at the 13th Australasian Autoimmunity Workshop, held this past month in Adelaide. 

As the leading Australian autoimmunity conference, the Australasian Autoimmunity Workshop plays a critical role in supporting research into autoimmune disease.

The bi-annual workshop brings together key researchers in the field of autoimmunity with outstanding international speakers.  At the Workshop, researchers from the top universities and centres have the opportunity to form and foster collaborations, as well as to present and discuss new and unpublished findings.

One of the highlights of the Workshop is the Ian Mackay Oration, named after one of the founders of the field of clinical autoimmunity.  In her oration, “A Brief History of Tolerance: From Theory to Therapy” Professor Frazekas described her career’s investigation into immune tolerance.

Professor Fazekas remarked, “I’m honoured to have been asked to give such a prestigious lecture.  It is not often that a researcher gets the chance to take a broader perspective into the field or present her view on what immunology is all about, what the important questions are in the field and how we should answer them.”

Professor Mathew Vadas, Executive Director of the Centenary Institute, says, “Barbara has made many important contributions to the field of autoimmunity.  Centenary is delighted to be the focal point in this rapidly emerging area that offers new therapeutics to patients with autoimmune disease.”