- Healthy Ageing
- Food Industry/obesity
- Accidents & Trauma
- Public Health
- Big data
- Mental healthcare
- Infectious Disease
- Research in the future
- Globalisation
Theme
Brisbane is well placed to lead a global discussion on improvements to human life, with numerous medical breakthroughs in recent years. The work of Ian Frazer’s Translational Research Institute at the Princess Alexandra Hospital and the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute has been recognised across the world, as have other achievements. And during the past 15 years, more than $1 billion has been spent establishing major research institutes at Brisbane’s universities, creating a global centre of research excellence.
Chair
The topic chair for this theme is Professor Ian Frazer, CEO and director of research at Brisbane’s Translational Research Institute. Professor Frazer and his colleagues invented the world’s first cancer vaccine – the Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) vaccine against cervical cancer. He is a past president of the Cancer Council of Australia, and advises the World Health Organisation and the Bill and Melissa Gates Foundation on papilloma virus vaccines. Professor Frazer also is a guest lecturer at The University of Queensland and was awarded Australian of the Year in 2006.
Co-Chair Professor Frank Gannon is the QIMR Berghofer Medical Research Institute's seventh Director and CEO. In this role he is responsible for strategy, research work undertaken by the Institute and management of employees. His major research interest is the regulation of gene expression by the oestrogen receptor, which plays a major role in breast and endometrial cancer. These studies have provided leads to novel treatments or therapeutic approaches to these and other cancers.
