Suzanne Cory

Last updated

Suzanne Cory
Born (1942-03-11) 11 March 1942 (age 81)
Nationality Australian
SpouseJerry Adams
Children2
Awards Australia Prize (1998)
L'Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science (2001)
Royal Medal (2002)
Pearl Meister Greengard Prize (2009)
Scientific career
FieldsGenetics and the immune system
Institutions

Suzanne Cory AC FAA FRS (born 11 March 1942) is an Australian molecular biologist. She has worked on the genetics of the immune system and cancer and has lobbied her country to invest in science. She is married to fellow scientist Jerry Adams, also a WEHI scientist, whom she met while studying for her PhD at the University of Cambridge, England.

Contents

Education and personal life [1]

Suzanne Cory was raised in the Kew suburbs of Melbourne, Australia. She attended Canterbury Girls' Secondary College, followed by University High School, Melbourne. Her further education includes undergraduate studies at the University of Melbourne and earning a PhD from the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge, England. Cory attended the LMB at the same time as the Nobel Prize winners Francis Crick, known for his co-discovery of the structure of DNA, and Frederick Sanger, who revolutionised nucleic acid sequencing. While obtaining her PhD, Cory used Sanger's RNA sequencing techniques to identify the sequence of transfer RNA. Also, during her time at the LMB, Cory met her current husband, Jerry Adams, a scientist from the United States. The two scientists later married and had two daughters.[ citation needed ]

Research and accomplishments

Following her time at the LMB, Cory travelled to the University of Geneva for her post-doctoral studies. While in Geneva, she focused on sequencing the RNA of R17 bacteriophage for the purpose of using it as a model. [1]

In 1971, Cory and her husband began their research at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, located in Melbourne, Australia. The two scientists helped introduce new scientific technology and methods they had been exposed to in Geneva and Cambridge, which helped expand and better the molecular biology research in Australia. They initially chose to study the genetic component of immunity, discovering that antibody genes are a combination of pieces and can be arranged in a variety of ways. This discovery helped explain the diversity of the immune system and its ability to fight a large array of harmful cell invaders. [1]

After a decade of studying the immune system, Cory's lab switched their focus to cancer and the genetic components of various cancers. Her lab discovered the genetic mutations that lead to Burkitt's lymphoma and Follicular lymphoma. [1] [2] One of the main focuses of their cancer cell research is on cell proliferation and cell death. In particular, the oncoprotein Myc and the Bcl-2 protein family are of interest to her current research lab. [3]

Bcl-2 is an important family of intracellular proteins that helps regulate apoptosis, or cell suicide. [3] Bcl-2, paired with other regulators, prevents caspases from being activated. [4] The caspases, a type of protease, remain inactive until signaled through a cascade to degrade the proteins that make up a cell. [4] Cory's lab has developed Bcl2-blocking agents called BH3 mimetics, which, when paired with low-dose chemotherapy, have had positive results treating specific types of aggressive lymphomas. [3]

Cory is the immediate past President of the Australian Academy of Science. She was the first-elected female President of the Academy and took office on 7 May 2010 for a four-year term, replacing the former president, Professor Kurt Lambeck. [5] Since its formation in 1954, there has only been one other female president of the Australian Academy of Science, Professor Dorothy Hill, who filled in for Professor David Forbes Martyn after his death in 1970. [5]

Cory was the Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI), from 1996 until 30 June 2009 and remains a faculty member, having rejoined the institute's Molecular Genetics of Cancer Division. Her current research focuses on genetic changes in blood cancers and the effects of chemotherapeutic drugs on the cancer cells. Cory's work has been published in research journals including Blood (journal), The EMBO Journal, Nature (journal), Cell Death & Differentiation, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. [3]

The Suzanne Cory High School opened in Cory's honour in 2011. [1] The public high school caters to 800 students from grades 9-12. Qualified students gain entry to the school through a three-hour aptitude test, which is also used for placement into three other highly selective Australian high schools. The school is in close proximity to Victoria University, which allows students access to the school's facilities and staff.

Awards and honors


[1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WEHI</span> Medical research institute in Victoria, Australia

WEHI, previously known as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, is Australia's oldest medical research institute. Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, who won the Nobel Prize in 1960 for his work in immunology, was director from 1944 to 1965. Burnet developed the ideas of clonal selection and acquired immune tolerance. Later, Professor Donald Metcalf discovered and characterised colony-stimulating factors. As of 2015, the institute hosted more than 750 researchers who work to understand, prevent and treat diseases including blood, breast and ovarian cancers; inflammatory diseases (autoimmunity) such as rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and coeliac disease; and infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV and hepatitis B and C.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Doherty (immunologist)</span> Australian immunologist Nobel laureate

Peter Charles Doherty is an Australian immunologist and Nobel laureate. He received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1995, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Rolf M. Zinkernagel in 1996 and was named Australian of the Year in 1997. In the Australia Day Honours of 1997, he was named a Companion of the Order of Australia for his work with Zinkernagel. He is also a National Trust Australian Living Treasure. In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, Doherty's immune system research was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as an iconic "innovation and invention".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rolf M. Zinkernagel</span> Swiss immunologist (born 1944)

Rolf Martin Zinkernagel AC is a professor of experimental immunology at the University of Zurich. Along with Peter C. Doherty, he shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of how the immune system recognizes virus-infected cells.

Jerry McKee Adams, FAA, FRS, FAHMS, FRSV is an Australian-American molecular biologist whose research into the genetics of haemopoietic differentiation and malignancy, led him and his wife, Professor Suzanne Cory, to be the first two scientists to pioneer gene cloning techniques in Australia, and to successfully clone mammalian genes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Donald Metcalf</span> Australian medical researcher (1929–2014)

Donald Metcalf AC FRS FAA was an Australian medical researcher who spent most of his career at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne. In 1954 he received the Carden Fellowship from the Anti-Cancer Council of Victoria; while he officially retired in 1996, he continued working and held his fellowship until his death in December 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stanley J. Korsmeyer</span> American oncologist (1950–2005)

Stanley Joel Korsmeyer was an American research scientist known for his work on B cell lymphomas and apoptosis. Born and educated in the US state of Illinois, Korsmeyer spent most of his career as a professor at Washington University School of Medicine and later the Dana–Farber Cancer Institute. He rose to prominence in the early 1980s as a research fellow at the National Cancer Institute. There he co-discovered the genetic cause of most cases of the cancer follicular lymphoma – the misregulation of the gene Bcl-2. Korsmeyer went on to start his own laboratory at Washington University in St. Louis, further studying the role of Bcl-2 in cell biology. His group's work expanded the paradigm of cancer-causing genes, providing the first example of how interfering with programmed cell death could lead to cancer development. Korsmeyer authored over 250 scientific papers over the course of his career. He was elected to the U.S. National Academy of Sciences at the age of 45. Korsmeyer died of lung cancer in 2005, at the age of 54.

Jacques Francis Albert Pierre Miller AC FRS FAA is a French-Australian research scientist. He is known for having discovered the function of the thymus and for the identification, in mammalian species of the two major subsets of lymphocytes and their function.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Denis Alexander</span> British molecular biologist and author

Dr. Denis Alexander has spent 40 years in the biomedical research community. He is an Emeritus Fellow of St. Edmund’s College, Cambridge and an Emeritus Director of the Faraday Institute for Science and Religion, Cambridge which he co-founded with Bob White in 2006.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Terry Speed</span>

Terence Paul "Terry" Speed, FAA FRS is an Australian statistician. A senior principal research scientist at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, he is known for his contributions to the analysis of variance and bioinformatics, and in particular to the analysis of microarray data.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doug Hilton</span> Australian molecular biologist

Douglas James Hilton is an Australian molecular biologist. He is the CEO of CSIRO and immediate past Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia. His research has focused on cytokines, signal transduction pathways and the regulation of blood cell formation (hematopoiesis). Hilton was the President of the Association of the Australian Medical Research Institutes (AAMRI) from 2014-16.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jane Visvader</span> Australian academic

Jane Visvader is a scientist specialising in breast cancer research who works for the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in Melbourne, Australia. She is the joint head of the Breast Cancer Laboratory with Geoff Lindeman.

Georgia Chenevix-Trench is an Australian cancer researcher who investigates genetic predispositions to cancer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Peter Colman</span>

Peter Malcolm Colman is the head of the structural biology division at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, Australia.

Melanie Bahlo is an Australian statistical geneticist and bioinformatician.

David James Kemp OAM FAA was an Australian plant geneticist and parasitologist.

Alan Frederick Cowman AC, FRS, FAA, CorrFRSE, FAAHMS, FASP, FASM is an internationally acclaimed malaria researcher whose work specialises in researching the malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, and the molecular mechanisms it uses to evade host responses and antimalarial drugs. He is currently deputy directory of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne, and his laboratory continues to work on understanding how Plasmodium falciparum, infects humans and causes disease. He was elected as a fellow of the Royal Society in 2011 and awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia in 2019 for his "eminent service to the biological sciences, notably to molecular parasitology, to medical research and scientific education, and as a mentor."

Misty Rayna Jenkins is an Australian scientist known for her research into lymphocytes and cancer treatment.

Laura Machesky FRSE FMedSci is a British-American cancer research scientist currently based in the University of Cambridge. Professor Machesky is the Sir William Dunn Professor of Biochemistry in the Department of Biochemistry, and the current president of the British Society for Cell Biology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Erinna Lee</span> Singaporean molecular biologist

Erinna Lee is a Singaporean molecular biologist specializing in apoptosis and autophagy.

Lynn Corcoran is an American–Australian immunologist who is Professor of Immunology at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. Her research considers cancer, parasitology and immunology, with a focus on B cells biology. She was inducted into the Victorian government's Honour Roll in 2013.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Professor Suzanne Cory-AC, PhD, PresAA, FRS | About Us". www.suzannecoryhs.vic.edu.au. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  2. ↑ Adams, J. M.; Gerondakis, S.; Webb, E.; Corcoran, L. M.; Cory, S. (1 April 1983). "Cellular myc oncogene is altered by chromosome translocation to an immunoglobulin locus in murine plasmacytomas and is rearranged similarly in human Burkitt lymphomas". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 80 (7): 1982–1986. Bibcode:1983PNAS...80.1982A. doi: 10.1073/pnas.80.7.1982 . ISSN   0027-8424. PMC   393736 . PMID   6572957.
  3. 1 2 3 4 Research, The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical (17 October 2014). "Professor Suzanne Cory". Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research. Retrieved 24 November 2016.
  4. 1 2 Cory, Suzanne; Huang, David C. S.; Adams, Jerry M. (1 January 2003). "The Bcl-2 family: roles in cell survival and oncogenesis". Oncogene. 22 (53): 8590–8607. doi: 10.1038/sj.onc.1207102 . ISSN   0950-9232. PMID   14634621.
  5. 1 2 "First elected female President of the Academy of Science". Magazine. July 2010 – via EBSCOHost.
  6. ↑ "Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lecture". Australian Academy of Science. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
  7. ↑ "Elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Victoria - The Royal Society of Victoria". The Royal Society of Victoria. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  8. ↑ "Professor Suzanne Cory". It's an Honour. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
  9. ↑ Colin Thomson Medal 2011 Announcement Archived 9 July 2011 at the Wayback Machine
  10. ↑ "2012 Eureka Prizes awarded". ResearchCareer. Retrieved 22 October 2022.
  11. ↑ ABC Radio National Boyer Lectures, 2014 Boyer Lectures
  12. ↑ "29 new Fellows elected". AAHMS – Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences. 26 October 2021. Retrieved 29 October 2021.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.