- About
- Strategic Plan
- Structure
- Governance
- Scientific divisions
- ACRF Cancer Biology and Stem Cells
- ACRF Chemical Biology
- Advanced Technology and Biology
- Bioinformatics
- Blood Cells and Blood Cancer
- Clinical Translation
- Epigenetics and Development
- Immunology
- Infectious Diseases and Immune Defence
- Inflammation
- Personalised Oncology
- Population Health and Immunity
- Structural Biology
- Ubiquitin Signalling
- Laboratory operations
- Funding
- Annual reports
- Human research ethics
- Scientific integrity
- Institute life
- Career opportunities
- Business Development
- Business Development Office
- Partnering opportunities
- A complete cure for HBV
- A stable efficacious Toxoplasma vaccine
- Activating SMCHD1 to treat FSHD
- Improving vision outcomes in retinal detachment
- Intercepting inflammation with RIPK2 inhibitors
- Novel inhibitors for the treatment of lupus
- Novel malaria vaccine
- Novel mucolytics for the treatment of respiratory diseases
- Precision epigenetics silencing SMCHD1 to treat Prader Willi Syndrome
- Rethinking CD52 a therapy for autoimmune disease
- Targeting minor class splicing
- Royalties distribution
- Start-up companies
- Collaborators
- Publications repository
- Awards
- Discoveries
- Centenary 2015
- History
- Contact us
- Research
- Diseases
- Cancer
- Development and ageing
- Immune health and infection
- Research fields
- Research technologies
- People
- Anne-Laure Puaux
- Associate Profesor Ian Majewski
- Associate Professor Aaron Jex
- Associate Professor Alyssa Barry
- Associate Professor Andrew Webb
- Associate Professor Chris Tonkin
- Associate Professor Daniel Gray
- Associate Professor Diana Hansen
- Associate Professor Edwin Hawkins
- Associate Professor Emma Josefsson
- Associate Professor Ethan Goddard-Borger
- Associate Professor Grant Dewson
- Associate Professor Isabelle Lucet
- Associate Professor James Murphy
- Associate Professor James Vince
- Associate Professor Jason Tye-Din
- Associate Professor Jeanne Tie
- Associate Professor Jeff Babon
- Associate Professor Joan Heath
- Associate Professor Justin Boddey
- Associate Professor Kate Sutherland
- Associate Professor Leanne Robinson
- Associate Professor Marco Herold Marco Herold
- Associate Professor Marie-Liesse Asselin-Labat
- Associate Professor Matthew Ritchie
- Associate Professor Melissa Davis
- Associate Professor Misty Jenkins
- Associate Professor Nawaf Yassi
- Associate Professor Oliver Sieber
- Associate Professor Peter Czabotar
- Associate Professor Rachel Wong
- Associate Professor Rhys Allan
- Associate Professor Rosie Watson
- Associate Professor Ruth Kluck
- Associate Professor Sandra Nicholson
- Associate Professor Sant-Rayn Pasricha
- Associate Professor Seth Masters
- Associate Professor Sumitra Ananda
- Associate Professor Tim Thomas
- Associate Professor Wai-Hong Tham
- Associate Professor Wei Shi
- Catherine Parker
- Chela Niall
- Deborah Carr
- Dr Alisa Glukhova
- Dr Anna Coussens
- Dr Ashley Ng
- Dr Ben Tran
- Dr Bernhard Lechtenberg
- Dr Brad Sleebs
- Dr Drew Berry
- Dr Gemma Kelly
- Dr Gwo Yaw Ho
- Dr Hui-Li Wong
- Dr Jacqui Gulbis
- Dr Joanna Groom
- Dr John Wentworth
- Dr Kelly Rogers
- Dr Lucy Gately
- Dr Margaret Lee
- Dr Mary Ann Anderson
- Dr Maryam Rashidi
- Dr Matthew Call
- Dr Melissa Call
- Dr Philippe Bouillet
- Dr Rebecca Feltham
- Dr Samir Taoudi
- Dr Shalin Naik
- Dr Sheau Wen Lok
- Dr Simon Chatfield
- Dr Tracy Putoczki
- Guillaume Lessene
- Helene Martin
- Joh Kirby
- Kaye Wycherley
- Keely Bumsted O'Brien
- Mr Joel Chibert
- Mr Simon Monard
- Mr Steve Droste
- Ms Carolyn MacDonald
- Professor Alan Cowman
- Professor Andreas Strasser
- Professor Andrew Lew
- Professor Andrew Roberts
- Professor Anne Voss
- Professor Clare Scott
- Professor David Huang
- Professor David Komander
- Professor David Vaux
- Professor Doug Hilton
- Professor Gabrielle Belz
- Professor Geoff Lindeman
- Professor Gordon Smyth
- Professor Ian Wicks
- Professor Ivo Mueller
- Professor Jane Visvader
- Professor Jerry Adams
- Professor John Silke
- Professor Ken Shortman
- Professor Leonard C Harrison
- Professor Lynn Corcoran
- Professor Marc Pellegrini
- Professor Marnie Blewitt
- Professor Melanie Bahlo
- Professor Mike Lawrence
- Professor Nicos Nicola
- Professor Peter Colman
- Professor Peter Gibbs
- Professor Phil Hodgkin
- Professor Stephen Nutt
- Professor Suzanne Cory
- Professor Terry Speed
- Professor Tony Burgess
- Professor Tony Papenfuss
- Professor Warren Alexander
- Diseases
- Education
- PhD
- Honours
- Masters
- Undergraduate
- Student research projects
- A new regulator of stemness to create dendritic cell factories for immunotherapy
- Advanced methods for genomic rearrangement detection
- Control of cytokine signaling by SOCS1
- Defining the protein modifications associated with respiratory disease
- Delineating the pathways driving cancer development and therapy resistance
- Developing a new drug that targets plasmacytoid dendritic cells for the treatment of lupus
- Development and mechanism of action of novel antimalarials
- Development of a novel particle-based malaria vaccine
- Development of tau-specific therapeutic and diagnostic antibodies
- Discovering novel therapies for major human pathogens
- Dissecting host cell invasion by the diarrhoeal pathogen Cryptosporidium
- Epigenetic biomarkers of tuberculosis infection
- Essential role of glycobiology in malaria parasites
- Evolution of haematopoiesis in vertebrates
- Human lung protective immunity to tuberculosis
- Identifying novel treatment options for ovarian carcinosarcoma
- Interaction with Toxoplasma parasites and the brain
- Interactions between tumour cells and their microenvironment in non-small cell lung cancer
- Investigating the role of mutant p53 in cancer
- Microbiome strain-level analysis using long read sequencing
- Minimising rheumatic adverse events of checkpoint inhibitor cancer therapy
- Modelling spatial and demographic heterogeneity of malaria transmission risk
- Naturally acquired immune response to malaria parasites
- Predicting the effect of non-coding structural variants in cancer
- Structural basis of catenin-independent Wnt signalling
- Structure and biology of proteins essential for Toxoplasma parasite invasion
- T lymphocytes: how memories are made
- TICKER: A cell history recorder for longitudinal patient monitoring
- Targeting host pathways to develop new broad-spectrum antiviral drugs
- Targeting post-translational modifications to disrupting the function of secreted proteins
- Targeting the epigenome to rewire pro-allergic T cells
- Targeting the immune microenvironment to treat KRAS-mutant adenocarcinoma
- The E3 ubiquitin ligase Parkin and mitophagy in Parkinson’s disease
- The molecular controls on dendritic cell development
- Understanding malaria infection dynamics
- Understanding the genetics of neutrophil maturation
- Understanding the neuroimmune regulation of innate immunity
- Understanding the proteins that regulate programmed cell death at the molecular level
- Using cutting-edge single cell tools to understand the origins of cancer
- When healthy cells turn bad: how immune responses can transition to lymphoma
- School resources
- Frequently asked questions
- Student profiles
- Abebe Fola
- Andrew Baldi
- Anna Gabrielyan
- Bridget Dorizzi
- Casey Ah-Cann
- Catia Pierotti
- Emma Nolan
- Huon Wong
- Jing Deng
- Joy Liu
- Kaiseal Sarson-Lawrence
- Komal Patel
- Lilly Backshell
- Megan Kent
- Naomi Jones
- Rebecca Delconte
- Roberto Bonelli
- Rune Larsen
- Runyu Mao
- Sarah Garner
- Simona Seizova
- Wayne Cawthorne
- Wil Lehmann
- Miles Horton
- Alexandra Gurzau
- Student achievements
- Student association
- News
- Donate
- Online donation
- Ways to support
- Support outcomes
- Supporter stories
- Rotarians against breast cancer
- A partnership to improve treatments for cancer patients
- 20 years of cancer research support from the Helpman family
- A generous gift from a cancer survivor
- A gift to support excellence in Australian medical research
- An enduring friendship
- Anonymous donor helps bridge the 'valley of death'
- Renewed support for HIV eradication project
- Searching for solutions to muscular dystrophy
- Supporting research into better treatments for colon cancer
- Taking a single cell focus with the DROP-seq
- WEHI.TV
Sir Gustav Nossal

Director, 1965-1996
Sir Gustav Nossal is revered as an eminent immunologist and advocate for global health, and as an outstanding leader. In his 31 years as director, he increased the institute's scientific scope and size, nurturing new research programs and transforming the institute into the dynamic organisation it is today.
Nossal's outgoing personality and great gift for communication, coupled with a formidable scientific intellect, have made him one of Australia's foremost advocates for science. His influence and vision have created an enduring legacy. He continues to support the institute's research, staff and students in his role as patron.
- Read about Sir Gustav Nossal's discoveries and contributions on our Discovery Timeline
Contribution to immunology
As a young medical graduate, Sir Gustav Nossal came to the institute expecting to study virology. He arrived just at the time Sir Macfarlane Burnet had decided that the institute’s focus was to shift entirely to immunology research – and Sir Gustav Nossal became an immunologist.
His research greatly advanced understanding of how our immune system generates antibodies to protect us from infectious diseases. In addition, his ideas and experiments greatly clarified how the immune system learns to distinguish our own body from foreign invaders, how breakdown of this tolerance can lead to autoimmune diseases such as lupus and rheumatoid arthritis.
In 1965, Sir Gustav Nossal succeeded Sir Macfarlane Burnet as institute director.
Sir Macfarlane Burnet
As well as continuing to pursue his own successful research programs, as director Sir Gustav Nossal supported many globally significant research discoveries by institute researchers.
During this period the institute expanded its research scope to include haematology, parasitology, molecular biology and neural development. Immunology remained a central focus, and Nossal himself greatly advanced understanding of Burnet’s clonal selection theory and the immune system’s ‘tolerance to self’.
Funding priority
One of Sir Gustav Nossal’s first accomplishments as director was to put the institute on a firmer financial footing. He successfully persuaded the National Health and Medical Research Council to provide a triennial block grant, allowing our researchers to focus more on research than on securing research funding.
This policy was later extended to other major medical research institutes and was probably one of the most important factors contributing to the extraordinary success enjoyed today by Australian biomedical science.
Nurturing the best and brightest
Under Nossal’s leadership, many eminent scientists were drawn to the institute.
Professor Ian Mackay pioneered clinical research on autoimmunity and began treatment of autoimmunity with immunosuppressive drugs – still the gold standard today.
their research with Victorian Premier Sir Henry Bolte in 1966
Professor Don Metcalf discovered the colony stimulating factors (CSFs) that have now helped more than 20 million cancer patients worldwide to recover from chemotherapy, and which have revolutionised blood stem cell transplantation.
Immunology research continued to grow from its Burnet-era expansion. Professor Jacques Miller was recruited from London. Building on his seminal discovery of the function of the thymus, he discovered that T lymphocytes derived from the thymus helped B lymphocytes create antibodies. At the same time, Professor Ken Shortman began his groundbreaking analysis of T cell development, which expanded into studies of dendritic cells.
and Professor Ken Shortman in the 1970s
Professor Suzanne Cory and Professor Jerry Adams were recruited by Sir Gustav Nossal to introduce the nascent field of molecular biology to the institute. Their research first contributed to uncovering how the immune system generates diverse antibodies – by rearranging antibody genes within B cells. The research ventured into studies of gene rearrangements in leukaemia, and from there to understanding cell death, research which Professors Cory and Adams continue today.
Sir Gustav Nossal initiated a research program into globally significant parasitic diseases, including malaria, into the institute. The immunoparasitology research team, led by Dr Graham Mitchell, started in a small way but rapidly expanded. This was the foundation from which our Infection and Immunity researchers continue today.
New facilities
With the institute’s growth came a need for more space and state-of-the-art technology. Sir Gustav Nossal built up sophisticated scientific facilities such as proteomics and flow cytometry, and gained the funding required to build a new, purpose-built home for the institute.
The new building, the western wing of our present site behind The Royal Melbourne Hospital, was completed in 1985, and greatly enhanced our research capacity.
Warrior for global heath
Over several decades Sir Gustav has inspired and guided the national scientific agenda, and is known to be one of Australia’s foremost science advocates.
He has also been an energetic warrior for global health, most notably through his long-standing association with the World Health Organisation and more recently with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Sir Gustav also served as Deputy Chairman of the Council for Aboriginal Reconciliation from 1998 to 2000.
Awards and honours
Sir Gustav Nossal was knighted in 1977 for his pioneering research work in immunology, and was made a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1989. He was named Australian of the Year in 2000.
Internationally, Sir Gustav Nossal is a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, a Foreign Associate of the US National Academy of Sciences, and Member of the French Academie des Sciences.
In 2006 the Nossal Institute for Global Health was established and named in Sir Gustav Nossal’s honour, with a mission to improve the health of vulnerable communities.
Nossal interviews
In 2005 Sir Gustav was interviewed for the WEHI Revisited series (produced by Louise Darmody, Sound Memories), in which several institute luminaries spoke about what drove them to pursue a career in medical research, and shared memories of life at the institute.
- Gus Nossal’s childhood (7:50)
- Gus Nossal’s medical and scientific aspirations (7:23)
- Life at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute (5:22)
- One cell, one antibody (4:41)
- Gus Nossal as director of the institute (10.25)
Diversity and Discovery
The remarkable advances in medical research between 1965 and 1996 coincided with the tenure of director Sir Gustav Nossal. As both a participant and keen observer, Nossal brings to life the exhilaration and the frustration of this revolutionary era.
Copies of this book can be ordered by phone +61 3 9345 2555. Cost $40 + P&H.