Scientific Advisory Board

The Centenary Institute's Scientific Advisory Board comprises world leading scientists who offer their expertise to support Centenary.

Professor Axel Ullrich (Chair)
Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry, Germany
Professor Ullrich is a pioneer in cancer research and is responsible for the discovery of the HER2/neu oncogene, the basis for Herceptin (Trastuzumab), the breakthrough therapeutic for breast cancer. Trastuzumab has not only delivered a major clinical benefit to women (a 50% decrease in tumour recurrence) not seen since the introduction of tamoxifen a decade ago, but also initiated the era of personalised medicine. His work in the field of signal transduction has elucidated major fundamental molecular mechanisms, such as protein phosphorylation, that govern the physiology of normal cells and allowed insights into pathophysiological mechanisms of major human diseases.

More recently, Prof Ullrich has been responsible for developing the first multi-targeted kinase inhibitor, SU11248/SUTENT, for the treatment of cancer. SUTENT has recently passed Phase III studies and is under consideration for approval for treatment of malignant gastrointestinal stromal tumours and metastatic renal cell carcinoma

Professor Valerie Beral
Director, Cancer Research UK Cancer Epidemiology Unit, University of Oxford, UK
Professor Beral studied medicine at the University of Sydney. After a few years of clinical work in Australia, New Guinea and the UK, she spent almost 20 years at London's School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine working in the Department of Epidemiology. For the last 20 years she has been the Director of the Cancer Research UK Epidemiology Unit in Oxford. Major focuses of her research include the role of reproductive, hormonal and infectious agents in cancer. She has published widely on the incidence of cancer in people infected with HIV, and is principal investigator of the International Collaboration on HIV in Cancer.

Professor Ian Frazer
Director, Diamantina Institute for Cancer, Immunology and Metabolic Medicine, University of Queensland, Australia
Professor Frazer trained as a physician at Edinburgh University, specialising in immunology. In 1980, he moved to Melbourne to research viral immunology at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, before heading to Queensland in 1985. He currently heads the University of Queensland's Diamantina Institute for Cancer, Immunology and Metabolic Medicine at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane.

Professor Frazer, the 2006 Australian of the Year, is best known for his work on the development of a cervical cancer vaccine. The vaccine, Gardasil, protects women from strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV) which cause up to 70 per cent of cervical cancers. Following highly successful clinical trials, Gardasil has been approved for use in the US, many European counties and was added to the National Immunisation Program in Australia in 2007.

Professor David Hunter
Director, Harvard Centre for Cancer Prevention, Harvard School of Public Health, US
Professor Hunter's principal research interests are the etiology of cancer in women, particularly breast, ovarian and skin cancer. He is an investigator on the Nurses' Health Study, a long-running cohort of 121,000 US women, and is project director for the Nurses' Health Study II, a newer cohort of 116,000 women. He also analyses inherited susceptibility to cancer and other chronic diseases using molecular techniques and studying molecular markers in environmental exposures. Dr Hunter is the Director for Harvard Centre for Cancer Prevention.

Professor Michael Good
Director, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, Australia
Professor Good is the Director of the Queensland Institute of Medical Research and the past Director of the Cooperative Research Centre for Vaccine Technology. His currently Professor of Tropical Health Program at the University of Queensland, Head of Molecular Immunology Laboratory at Queensland Institute of Medical Research and President of the Association of Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI). Professor Good's interests are in the field of immunity and immunopathogenesis to malaria and group A streptococcus/ rheumatic fever, with particular relevance to the development of vaccines

Professor Marc Feldmann
Kennedy Institute of Rheumatology, Imperial College London, UK
Professor Feldmann's interests focus on molecular mechanisms of autoimmune diseases, with a special interest in the role of cytokines in disease. These interests range from gene regulation of cytokines, how innate and adaptive immune responses intersect via NFkB, TLR and cytokines, and extends to novel therapeutic approaches for autoimmune or other diseases. His work has the long-term intent of helping develop new therapies, so called translational research. Professor Feldmann's work has led to new treatments for rheumatoid arthritis based on the blocking of TNFα.