Professional Milestones

 

He is a clinician scientist, trained as a clinical immunologist in Scotland. He graduated from the Edinburgh University Medical School in 1977 and trained as a renal physician and clinical immunologist in Edinburgh, Scotland, before moving to Melbourne, Australia. He continued his clinical training and pursued viral immunology and autoimmunity studies at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research with Prof. Ian Mackay. In 1985, he took up a teaching post with the University of Queensland, then received his medical doctorate (MD) from Melbourne University in 1988 and his doctorate in science (DSc) in 2013 from Edinburgh University.

 

Prof. Frazer was director of the UQ Diamantina Institute (UQDI), a research institute of UQ, and the inaugural Director of the Translational Research Institute (TRI), a central clinical and translational research institute, a joint venture between UQ, Queensland University of Technology, and the Princess Alexandra Hospital. He also has research and academic responsibilities to teach immunology to undergraduate and graduate students at Queensland University.

 

He served as a Chair of the Scientific Advisory Council of the International Agency for Research on Cancer, was the inaugural President of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, and was a Member of the Australian National Science and Technology Council. He chairs the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board of the Medical Research Future Fund.

 

He currently has many professional appointments, a Member of the Commonwealth Science Council, Chair of the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board, Chair of the Australian Genomics Independent Advisory Board and Steering Committee Member, National Health and Medical Research Council, and Member of the WHO Expert Group on Cervical Cancer Elimination and many others.

 

Prof. Frazer has served many biotech companies and not-for-profit organizations as CEO, Director, or Board Member at various times in his career. These organizations include Microba Pty Ltd, Jingang Medicine (Aus) Pty Ltd, Immuno-services Pty Ltd, and Implicit Bioscience Pty Ltd. 

 

Prof. Frazer joined several societies in the United Kingdom and Australia. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh, the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Science, the Australian Academy of Science, the Australian Academy of Technological Sciences and Engineering, the Royal College of Pathologists of Australia, and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh. 

 

Research and achievements

 

Since 1983, Prof. Frazer has pursued an interest in human papillomavirus (HPV) infection. In 1985, he and his colleagues in Melbourne demonstrated that papillomavirus infection contributed to anal precancer, particularly in men with immunosuppression due to HIV/AIDS. In 1991, he and his then-postdoctoral scientist, Dr. Jian Zhou, developed the technology for producing human papillomavirus virus-like particles. This technology, licensed through the University of Queensland, enabled the HPV vaccines, currently used worldwide to help prevent cervical cancer. Prof. Frazer has extensively studied the immunoregulatory effects of the expression of HPV proteins in epithelia and has used this knowledge and research on polynucleotide vaccines to develop therapeutic vaccines for chronic HPV.

 

As a Professor at the University of Queensland, he leads a research group at TRI on the immunobiology of epithelial cancers. His current research interests include immunoregulation and immunotherapeutic vaccines for squamous cancers and persistent viral infections.

 

Prof. Frazer consults CSL Ltd, UniQuest Pty Limited, and Merck in prophylactic and therapeutic papillomavirus vaccines. He is on the Science Alliance Advisory Board of Merck Pty Ltd and the scientific advisory boards of several biotechnology companies in Australia and the USA. He is a named inventor on patents relating to HPV prophylactic and therapeutic vaccines licensed to CSL, Merck, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), and on patents on DNA vaccines and on optimizing therapeutic protein expression licensed to Jingang Medicine (Aus) Pty Ltd.  

 

Over the last 40 years, Prof. Frazer has had hundreds of publications in high-impact journals, book sections, audio-visual materials, and tens of patents. 

 

Awards & Recognition 

 

In recognition of his achievements and research, Prof. Ian Frazer has received several awards and honors, including the Companion of the Order of Australia, the European Inventor Award from the European Patent Office, the Honda Prize, the Balzan Prize for Preventive Medicine, the Ramaciotti Medal for Excellence in Biomedical Research, the Australian Medical Association Gold Medal, the William B. Coley Award, the Australian of the Year Award for 2006, and the John Curtin Medal, among many others. 

 

In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the field of immunology and his pioneering work in developing the Human Papilloma Virus Vaccine, Prof. Ian Hector Frazer truly deserves the Grand Hamdan International Award in Infectious Diseases for the term 2021-2022.