Cervical Cancer Vaccine Creator Professor Ian Frazer Visits Indonesia

Professor Ian Frazer, creator of the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer will visit Indonesia from 25 to 28 April 2011. He will conduct screenings of the “Catching Cancer” documentary at universities in Jakarta and Surabaya as well meet with Indonesian scientists and researchers.

“I am proud to welcome Professor Frazer to Indonesia. His work demonstrates the scientific excellence we have in Australia and I hope his efforts will inspire Indonesian researchers and medical scientists as well as strengthen research collaboration and people to people links with Australia.” said Australian Ambassador to Indonesia, Greg Moriarty.

Screenings of the documentary will be held on Tuesday 26 April at University of Indonesia, Jakarta and Wednesday 27 April at Airlangga University, Surabaya. Government officials, members of the medical profession, university students and researchers will have the opportunity to attend the screening as well as participate in discussions with Professor Frazer.

Professor Ian Frazer is the Director of the Diamantina Institute. He is the creator of the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, the first vaccine designed to stop a cancer. He was named Australian of the Year in 2006 for his development of the HPV cervical cancer vaccine.

Professor Frazer teaches immunology to undergraduate and graduate students of the University of Queensland. He was recently made a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.

In February 2011, the Australian Government released a landmark study, ‘Excellence in Research for Australia’ which found the majority of Australian research units were rated at or above world standard. Areas of excellence included cardiovascular medicine and haematology, oncology and carcinogenesis, immunology, medical physiology, pharmacology and pharmaceutical sciences and clinical sciences.

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