Researcher in Focus: Prof Ian Frazer
This month we profile Prof Ian Frazer, who is recognised as the co-inventor of the technology enabling the HPV vaccines, currently used worldwide to help prevent cervical, and a range of HPV-caused cancers.
Prof Ian Frazer is a clinician scientist, trained as a clinical immunologist in Scotland. As a Professor of the University of Queensland, he leads a research group working at the Translational Research Institute in Brisbane, on the immunobiology of epithelial cancers.
He is the current President of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences and a member of the Commonwealth Science Council. Recently, he was appointed Chair of the Australian federal government’s Medical Research Future Fund. Among his honours are the title of ‘Australian of the Year’ in 2006 and recipient of the Balzan Prize in 2008.
[[{"fid":"8170","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false},"link_text":null,"type":"media","field_deltas":{"1":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":false,"field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":false}},"attributes":{"style":"height: 400px; width: 600px;","class":"media-element file-default","data-delta":"1"}}]]
On July 10, the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI) awarded Prof Frazer with an honorary fellowship. While in Ireland, Prof Frazer took the opportunity to speak to healthcare professionals, media, and the general public about the importance of vaccination and the opportunity Ireland has to eliminate cervical cancer within a generation.
The following day we were honoured to have Prof Frazer speak at our event: Eliminating Cervical Cancer: The Role of Screening and Vaccination. Here, Prof Frazer said: “I can give this talk in one sentence because I can say that cervical cancer is caused by infection of the virus . . . we have an effective vaccine.”
If the entire population of the world was immunised, he said, cervical cancer would disappear within a lifetime. However, it must be accompanied by screening as a very small cohort of people will not respond to the vaccine.
The Irish Cancer Society and the RCPI used Prof Frazer’s presence to call for gender-neutral vaccination and the rollout of HPV testing as our primary cervical screening method without delay. You can read more about this here.
