Prof. Tony Burgess Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Australia

Tony Burgess has had an interest in protein chemistry since his early studies on the conformational determinants of peptides and proteins. After post-doctoral studies at Cornell University and the Weizmann Institute, he returned to The Walker and Elisa Hall Institute to study the grown factors which stimulate blood cell formation.... read moreHe and his colleagues purified the first colony stimulating factor (CSF), discovered growth and differentiation factors controlling the development of blood cells. He was appointed as Director of the Melbourne Branch of the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research in 1980. His work enabled the molecular cloning of GM-CSF and the initial clinical studies with recombinant forms of the CSFs. He was involved in the detection and biology of the cell surface receptors for the CSFs, before taking up studies on the epidermal growth factor/receptor system. He was elected President of the Australian Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from 1998-2000. His recent studies have contributed to our understanding of the three dimensional structure of EGF and its receptor, as well as the mechanisms associated with signal transduction from the different EGF receptor complexes. He is attempting to develop improved approaches to cancer therapy using EGF receptor inhibitors. He has an active research program on the molecular basis of colon cancer, in particular the biology and biochemistry of the apc protein.