Walter and Eliza Hall Institute

The Walter and Eliza Hall Institue of Medical Research is located in Parkville, Melbourne. It is one of Australia's foremost medical research centres.

History

In 1915, the institute founded using funds from a trust established by the Hall family. It was Australia’s first medical research institute and adopted a crest bearing the Latin inscription, Fiat Lux – Let there be light.

Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet was Institute director 1944-1965, he brought the institues to international prominence for virological research, especially influenza, and then for immunology. Such was the nature of Sir Macfarlane’s achievement that he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1960.

Sir Gustav Nossal, was Institute director 1965–1996. Under his stewardship the Institue grew in size and scope, the Institutes scientists making important discoveries in control if immune system responses, cell cycle regulation and malaria.

Current research

The Institue has been lead by Professor Suzanne Cory since 1996. Currently the work of the Institute is centred on cancer, the immune system, autoimmune diseases – such as diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis – malaria, neural development, genetics and drug discovery.