Ian Frazer has been appointed as Chief Executive Officer of the Translational Research Institute (TRI) in Brisbane, Queensland.

 

Professor Ian Frazer, Australian of the Year 2006 and co-inventor of the cervical cancer vaccine, was part of the team that established TRI and will now take up the post of CEO in July 2011.

 

Alongside his new role, Professor Frazer will continue to lead a large and important UQDI research group.

Professor Matt Brown, an internationally recognised researcher into auto-immune diseases, has been appointed interim director of the University of Queensland Diamantina Institute, and will move into the role in April 2011.

When the TRI opens in Brisbane in 2012, it will be the largest institute of its type in the southern hemisphere — and one of only a handful worldwide that can research, trial treatments and manufacture breakthrough drugs in one location.

The TRI will accommodate up to 650 researchers from its four partners: The University of Queensland, Queensland University of Technology, Mater Medical Research Institute and the Princess Alexandra Hospital.

Professor Frazer, whose new role begins in July, said he was honoured to accept the appointment and excited about future discoveries and advances in medical research that would be made at the TRI.

“There are a number of pressing human health issues in the world such as diabetes, cervical and prostate cancer, melanoma and obesity, and I am proud to be leading TRI in researching and developing treatments for these diseases,” he said. 


“Importantly, patients, the Australian economy and our medical industry will all benefit from TRI's ability to manufacture and commercialise these treatments."