Professor Hopwood is distinguished for his contributions to knowledge of the lysosome and the delineation of inborn errors of metabolism within this organelle. These errors result in the lysosomal storage diseases that include the mucopolysaccharidoses. Hopwood’s contribution has included the purification of the enzymes, the cloning of six of the genes that encode them, the production of recombinant enzymes for each of these and the development of procedures for their use for the treatment of patients with disease. Cloning of the genes revolutionised the ability to provide accurate diagnostics and enabled therapies to be developed. Thus far one of these recombinant enzymes has now received FDA approval as a drug for the effective treatment of a mucopolysaccharidosis and another such approval is imminent. No other Australian scientist has two FDA approved drugs as a direct outcome of his work.

Please contact fellowship@science.org.au to request any updates to the data.

Professor James has made seminal contributions to the understanding of insulin action and diabetes. He discovered the insulin regulatable glucose transporter GLUT4, the key molecule which transports sugar from the blood stream into muscle and fat cells and identified the key steps in the insulin regulation of glucose transport which now represent major therapeutic targets in diabetes. He performed pioneering work in fuel metabolism including elucidation of novel mechanisms for regulation of energy expenditure which have become new areas for obesity research. Professor James is an international leader in cell biology research and has contributed in a major way to the development of this discipline in Australia.

Please contact fellowship@science.org.au to request any updates to the data.

Ruth Hall has made an exceptional contribution to Microbiology and Genetics by discovering and characterising a novel system for gene mobilisation that is critical for the dissemination of antibiotic resistance genes and is also a major generator of diversity in bacteria. The known integron types each consist of a backbone encoding a recombinase and a site where genes are integrated. The genes are in small mobile elements called gene cassettes that usually include only the gene and a recombination site. Over 100 resistance genes are in cassettes, but the total of all cassette types is known to be enormous and the genes to be extremely diverse.

Please contact fellowship@science.org.au to request any updates to the data.

Andreas Strasser is noted for his seminal studies on the control of apoptosis, the cell death program essential for development and homeostasis. By exploiting mouse genetics, he demonstrated that abnormalities in the control of apoptosis can cause autoimmune disease and cancer and render tumor cells refractory to anti-cancer therapy. He established that there are two distinct signalling pathways leading to cell death, one triggered by ligation of cell surface "death receptors" and the other by cytokine deprivation or intra-cellular stress signals. These discoveries have major implications for biological research and suggest novel therapeutic strategies for cancer, autoimmunity and degenerative diseases.

Please contact fellowship@science.org.au to request any updates to the data.

Dr Cowman has made important contributions towards our understanding of Plasrnodium falciparum the causative agent of the most lethal form of human malaria. In particular, he and his colleagues have elucidated the mechanisms of resistance that this parasite uses to evade the most important antimalarial agents used for both control and treatment of this disease. This has implications for the epidemiological analysis of drug resistance genes and the development of novel antimalarials. Additionally, he has made important contributions to our understanding of the structure of the P.falciparum genome and the function of important virulence determinants of this infectious organism.

Please contact fellowship@science.org.au to request any updates to the data.

Dr Holt is recognised internationally for his pioneering studies on the identification and characterisation of the cellular interactions responsible for regulating immunity in the airways. He was the first: (a) to discover the respiratory mucosa! dendritic cell network and its 'gatekeeper' function in antigen surveillance and induction of primary immunity in the lung; (b) to delineate an opposing inhibitory role for endogenous tissue macrophages in controlling T cell memory at that site. His work has profound implications for the understanding of susceptibility to asthma, immunisation with and tolerance induction to antigens delivered via the respiratory route and early intervention in allergic diseases.

Please contact fellowship@science.org.au to request any updates to the data.

Dr Shortman is distinguished for his work on the differentiation pathways of lymphoid cells, in particular those leading to T lymphocytes and dendritic cells. He was a pioneer in the development of biophysical procedures for the purification of distinct lymphoid cell subsets and was the first investigator to succeed in isolating the earliest thyrnic lymphoid progenitor. A quantitative approach has been the hallmark of his style and he has given us a clear picture of the kinetics of the birth, proliferation, emigration, and death of cells in the thymus.

Please contact fellowship@science.org.au to request any updates to the data.

Professor Kuchel is an outstanding theoretical/physical biochemist and NMR spectroscopist. The unifying theme of his work, which is noticeably transdisciplinary, has been the measurement of the time dependence of molecular events in the red blood cell, and relating the experimental observations to molecular mechanisms of enzymes and transport proteins as they operate in situ. Throughout his work, which has continuously broken new ground, he has applied a very high level of mathematical and computational expertise, and has developed several innovative NMR-based experimental procedures for the measurement of physical parameters inside cells.

Please contact fellowship@science.org.au to request any updates to the data.

Ann Woolcock's studies of airway function in asthma have resulted in a widely used method for demonstrating disease in the small airways and for identifying subjects at risk of severe and potentially fatal asthmatic attacks. She has introduced new epidemiological methods for international studies of asthma, has identified the house dust mite as an important allergen and was the first to describe changes in peptidergic nerves in asthma. She has introduced new therapeutic plans for the management of the disease internationally. She has also made important contributions to the understanding of racial differences in lung function and of the effects of smoking.

Please contact fellowship@science.org.au to request any updates to the data.

Ian Reay Mackay is distinguished for contributions to clinical immunology, particularly autoimmune disease. Mackay wrote the first text (1963), with F. M. Burnet, on the nature of autoimmune disease. He identified autoimmunity as one cause of chronic hepatitis (1956) and established diagnostic serological assays, and showed that corticosteroid and immunosuppressive drugs reversed autoimmune inflammation in the liver (1957-1968). Mackay also described primary biliary cirrhosis as an autoimmune disease (1958) and his laboratory identified the autoantigenic mitochondrial polypeptides (1985) and the nuclear gene coding for the major polypeptide (1987), now recognized as part of the pyruvate dehydrogenase complex. His discoveries provided important insights into liver disease and autoimmunity in general.

Please contact fellowship@science.org.au to request any updates to the data.