Biography of ian frazer
Ian Frazer
Positions
- Emeritus Professor
- Faculty of Health, Medicine and Behavioural Sciences
Overview
Background
Professor Ian Frazer is a clinician scientist, trained as a clinical immunologist in Scotland. As a professor at the University of Queensland, he leads a research group working at TRI in Brisbane, Australia on the immunobiology of epithelial cancers. He is recognised as co-inventor of the technology enabling the HPV vaccines, currently used worldwide to help prevent cervical cancer. He heads a biotechnology company, Jingang Medicine (Aus) Pty Ltd, working on new vaccine technologies, and is a board member of several companies and not for profit organisations. He was the inaugural president of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences, and 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 was recognised as Australian of the Year in 2006. He was recipient of the Prime Ministers Prize for Science, and of the Balzan Prize, in 2008, and was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of London in 2012. He was appointed Companion of the Order of Australia in the Queen’s Birthday Honours list in 2013.
Availability
- Professor Ian Frazer is:
- Available for supervision
- Media expert
Qualifications
- Bachelor (Honours) of Science (Advanced), University of Edinburgh
- Bachelor of Medicine Surgery, University of Edinburgh
- Doctoral Diploma of Medicine, University of Melbourne
- Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia, Royal College of Pathologists of Australasia
- Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh, Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
Works
Search Professor Ian Frazer’s works on UQ eSpace
1 - 20 of 458 works
2025
Journal Article
Caerin 1.1/1.9-mediated antitumor immunity depends on IFNAR-Stat1 signalling of tumour infiltrating macrophage by autocrine IFNα Ian Frazer
Bio-bibliography
Australia/UK
Balzan Prize 2008 for Preventive Medicine, Including Vaccination
For his outstanding scientific achievement and lasting contribution to preventive medicine through his role in the development of a vaccine that promises to prevent virus-induced carcinoma of the cervix, which claims 250,000 lives every year.
IAN HECTOR FRAZER, born in Glasgow, Scotland, on 6 January 1953, is an Australian citizen.
He is Director of the Diamantina Institute for Cancer, Immunology and Metabolic Medicine, a research centre of the University of Queensland at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
Ian Frazer earned his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and an M.D. degree from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He was trained as a renal physician and clinical immunologist in Edinburgh before emigrating in 1981 to Melbourne to pursue studies in viral immunology and autoimmunity at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. In 1985 he moved to Brisbane to take up a teaching post at the University of Queensland.
He is president of the Cancer Council Australia and a member of the Australian Medical Research Advisory Committee, and advises the World Health Organization on papillomavirus vaccines.
In 2005, Dr. Frazer was awarded the Australian Museum CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science, which is awarded to an Australian individual who has demonstrated an outstanding role and impact in science leadership. In 2006 he received the Cancer Research Institute’s William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology along with Harald zur Hausen. Also in 2006, he was named Queenslander of the Year, and Australian of the Year.
Among his publications we mention:
– Zhou J, Sun XY, Stenzel DJ, Frazer IH (1991), “Expression of vaccinia recombinant HPV 16 L1 Ian Frazer was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and trained as a physician and clinical immunologist at Edinburgh University. He immigrated to Melbourne in 1980 to pursue further studies in viral immunology and autoimmunity. In 1985 Frazer took up a teaching post at the University of Queensland, where he established the Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research. He focussed on the link between human papilloma virus (HPV) and cervical cancer. By 1991 his team had created a world-first vaccine and began approaching drug companies for investment in development and clinical trials. Fifteen years later the first vaccine was released.
Accepting his Australian of the Year award, Frazer explained, ‘I was driven by curiosity but also the desire to do good for other people.’ Frazer has created four vaccines for the prevention and treatment of cervical cancer, which affects half a million women each year. His research has the potential to eradicate cervical cancer within a generation.
Professor ian frazer Ian frazer cricket 
Is ian frazer still alive Ian Frazer
Scottish-born Australian immunologist
For other people named Ian Frazer, see Ian Frazer (disambiguation).
Ian Hector FrazerAC (born 6 January 1953) is a Scottish-born Australian immunologist, the founding CEO and Director of Research of the Translational Research Institute (Australia). Frazer and Jian Zhou developed and patented the basic technology behind the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer at the University of Queensland. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute, Georgetown University, and University of Rochester also contributed to the further development of the cervical cancer vaccine in parallel.
Education
Frazer was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His parents were medical scientists, and he was drawn to science from a young age.
Frazer attended Aberdeen private school Robert Gordon's College. He chose to pursue medicine over an earlier interest in physics due to physics having fewer research opportunities, and he received his Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, at the University of Edinburgh in 1974 and 1977 respectively. It was during this time that he met his wife Caroline, whom he married in 1976. His 1978–79 residency was in the Edinburgh Eastern General Hospital, the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and the Roodlands General Hospital in Haddington.
In 1980/81 Frazer immigrated to Melbourne after he was headhunted by Dr. Ian Mackay at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research to research viral immunology. In 1981 he discovered that the immunodeficiency afflicting homosexuals in San Francisco was also found in the gay men in his hepatitis B study, and in 1984 helped to confirm that HIV was a cause. It was also found that another sexually transmitted virus was having a surprising effect: the human papilloma virus (HPV) infection seemed to be inducing precancerous cells.&#
Ian Frazer
Bio-bibliography
Australia/UK
Balzan Prize 2008 for Preventive Medicine, Including Vaccination
For his outstanding scientific achievement and lasting contribution to preventive medicine through his role in the development of a vaccine that promises to prevent virus-induced carcinoma of the cervix, which claims 250,000 lives every year.
IAN HECTOR FRAZER, born in Glasgow, Scotland, on 6 January 1953, is an Australian citizen.
He is Director of the Diamantina Institute for Cancer, Immunology and Metabolic Medicine, a research centre of the University of Queensland at the Princess Alexandra Hospital in Brisbane, and Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science.
Ian Frazer earned his Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degrees from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, and an M.D. degree from the University of Melbourne, Australia. He was trained as a renal physician and clinical immunologist in Edinburgh before emigrating in 1981 to Melbourne to pursue studies in viral immunology and autoimmunity at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. In 1985 he moved to Brisbane to take up a teaching post at the University of Queensland.
He is president of the Cancer Council Australia and a member of the Australian Medical Research Advisory Committee, and advises the World Health Organization on papillomavirus vaccines.
In 2005, Dr. Frazer was awarded the Australian Museum CSIRO Eureka Prize for Leadership in Science, which is awarded to an Australian individual who has demonstrated an outstanding role and impact in science leadership. In 2006 he received the Cancer Research Institute’s William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology along with Harald zur Hausen. Also in 2006, he was named Queenslander of the Year, and Australian of the Year.
Among his publications we mention:
– Zhou J, Sun XY, Stenzel DJ, Frazer IH (1991), “Expression of vaccinia recombinant HPV 16 L1 Ian Frazer was born in Glasgow, Scotland, and trained as a physician and clinical immunologist at Edinburgh University. He immigrated to Melbourne in 1980 to pursue further studies in viral immunology and autoimmunity. In 1985 Frazer took up a teaching post at the University of Queensland, where he established the Centre for Immunology and Cancer Research. He focussed on the link between human papilloma virus (HPV) and cervical cancer. By 1991 his team had created a world-first vaccine and began approaching drug companies for investment in development and clinical trials. Fifteen years later the first vaccine was released. Accepting his Australian of the Year award, Frazer explained, ‘I was driven by curiosity but also the desire to do good for other people.’ Frazer has created four vaccines for the prevention and treatment of cervical cancer, which affects half a million women each year. His research has the potential to eradicate cervical cancer within a generation.
Ian Frazer
Scottish-born Australian immunologist
For other people named Ian Frazer, see Ian Frazer (disambiguation).
Ian Hector FrazerAC (born 6 January 1953) is a Scottish-born Australian immunologist, the founding CEO and Director of Research of the Translational Research Institute (Australia). Frazer and Jian Zhou developed and patented the basic technology behind the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer at the University of Queensland. Researchers at the National Cancer Institute, Georgetown University, and University of Rochester also contributed to the further development of the cervical cancer vaccine in parallel.
Education
Frazer was born in Glasgow, Scotland. His parents were medical scientists, and he was drawn to science from a young age.
Frazer attended Aberdeen private school Robert Gordon's College. He chose to pursue medicine over an earlier interest in physics due to physics having fewer research opportunities, and he received his Bachelor of Science and Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery, at the University of Edinburgh in 1974 and 1977 respectively. It was during this time that he met his wife Caroline, whom he married in 1976. His 1978–79 residency was in the Edinburgh Eastern General Hospital, the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and the Roodlands General Hospital in Haddington.
In 1980/81 Frazer immigrated to Melbourne after he was headhunted by Dr. Ian Mackay at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research to research viral immunology. In 1981 he discovered that the immunodeficiency afflicting homosexuals in San Francisco was also found in the gay men in his hepatitis B study, and in 1984 helped to confirm that HIV was a cause. It was also found that another sexually transmitted virus was having a surprising effect: the human papilloma virus (HPV) infection seemed to be inducing precancerous cells.&#