The John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) is an Australian multidisciplinary

translational Translation is the communication of the meaning of a source-language text by means of an equivalent target-language text. The English language draws a terminological distinction (which does not exist in every language) between ''transla ...

medical research Medical research (or biomedical research), also known as experimental medicine, encompasses a wide array of research, extending from " basic research" (also called ''bench science'' or ''bench research''), – involving fundamental scienti ...

institute An institute is an organisational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations ( research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...

and

postgraduate education Postgraduate or graduate education refers to academic or professional degrees, certificates, diplomas, or other qualifications pursued by post-secondary students who have earned an undergraduate (bachelor's) degree. The organization and st ...

centre that forms part of the

Australian National University The Australian National University (ANU) is a public research university located in Canberra, the capital of Australia. Its main campus in Acton encompasses seven teaching and research colleges, in addition to several national academies an ...

(ANU) in

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

. The school was founded in 1948 as a result of the vision of

Nobel Laureate The Nobel Prizes ( sv, Nobelpriset, no, Nobelprisen) are awarded annually by the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, the Swedish Academy, the Karolinska Institutet, and the Norwegian Nobel Committee to individuals and organizations who make o ...

Sir

Howard Florey Howard Walter Florey, Baron Florey (24 September 189821 February 1968) was an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Sir Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role ...

and was named in honour of Australia's World War II Prime Minister

John Curtin John Curtin (8 January 1885 – 5 July 1945) was an Australian politician who served as the 14th prime minister of Australia from 1941 until his death in 1945. He led the country for the majority of World War II, including all but the last few ...

, who had died in office a few years earlier. In addition to Florey, Sir John Eccles (1963), Peter Doherty and Rolf M. Zinkernagel (1996), were Nobel Laureates as a result of research conducted at the JCSMR. Other notable researchers include Gordon Ada ,

Frank Fenner Frank John Fenner (21 December 1914 – 22 November 2010) was an Australian scientist with a distinguished career in the field of virology Virology is the scientific study of biological viruses. It is a subfield of microbiology that focus ...

, Sir

Hugh Ennor Sir Arnold Hughes "Hugh" Ennor (10 October 1912 – 14 October 1977) was a senior Australian public servant and policymaker. Life and career Ennor was born in Melbourne, the son of a joiner. For schooling, he attended a local Roman Catholic sch ...

, David Roderick Curtis and Chris Goodnow . The Director of the School is Professor Graham Mann. The JCSMR comprises three divisions: the Division of Immunity, Inflammation and Infection, the Division of Genome Sciences and Cancer, and the Eccles Institute of Neuroscience.

Research focus

Doherty's research discovered the way

T cells A T cell is a type of lymphocyte. T cells are one of the important white blood cells of the immune system and play a central role in the adaptive immune response. T cells can be distinguished from other lymphocytes by the presence of a T-cell re ...

interact with the Major Histocompatibility Complex in antigen recognition. Eccles was the Foundation Professor of Physiology at JCSMR when he received the Nobel Prize in 1963 for his study of nerve cells. Since 2012, the Eccles Institute of Neuroscience has been located in a new 60 million wing of JCSMR. The main research areas of the Eccles Institute of Neuroscience are cellular and synaptic physiology, sensory physiology and retina and muscle. Research in the Genome Sciences and Cancer Division combines advanced experimental and computational approaches with sophisticated genetic models to connect genotype with phenotype, understand mechanisms of cell differentiation, development or pathology, and generate novel therapies for cancer and other disease. The Division of Immunity, Inflammation and Infection focuses on mechanisms of immune-mediated pathology, mechanisms of immunity to infection, the longevity of immunity and immunological memory, and immunodeficiency syndromes, and mechanisms of leukocyte differentiation, trafficking, and growth control that are pertinent to cancer, immunological tolerance, autoimmunity, allergy and immunodeficiency.

JCSMR facilities

Completed as three buildings in stages over seven years by Hindmarsh Construction Australia at a cost of 130 million, the design of the building is influenced by the DNA

double helix A double is a look-alike or doppelgänger; one person or being that resembles another. Double, The Double or Dubble may also refer to: Film and television * Double (filmmaking), someone who substitutes for the credited actor of a character * ...

and provides education, conference, and secure research laboratory facilities. Parts of the School were filmed during the making of the drama series, '' The Code'', broadcast on ABC TV during 2014 and 2016. On 28 August 2006, the new ACRF Biomolecular Resource Facility was officially opened within the JCSMR, a new facility focusing on investigating the molecular aspects of cancer biology. The facility was partially supported by a 1.13 million grant awarded in 2004 by the

Australian Cancer Research Foundation The Australian Cancer Research Foundation (ACRF) is an Australian not-for-profit organisation which funds research into the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of all types of cancer. It provides multimillion-dollar grants for high-end research equ ...

. Major action star

Jackie Chan Fang Shilong (born 7 April 1954), known professionally in English as Jackie Chan and in Chinese as Cheng Long ( zh, c=成龍, j=Sing4 Lung4; "becoming the dragon"), is a Hong Kong actor, filmmaker, martial artist, and stuntman known for ...

made donations to the School, with the Director in 2006 announcing the Jackie Chan Science Centre was named in his honour; and was opened by Chan in 2008.

References

External links

John Curtin School of Medical Research
{{Authority control Australian National University Medical research institutes in the Australian Capital Territory 1948 establishments in Australia Research institutes established in 1948

Research focus

JCSMR facilities

See also

References

Further reading

External links