Understanding apoptosis

Andreas Strasser did his PhD in Switzerland with Professor Fritz Melchers at the Basel Institute for Immunology, investigating B lymphocyte development. At the end of his PhD, Strasser wanted to pursue research that was more disease-related.

An offer by Professors Suzanne Cory and Jerry Adams of WEHI in Melbourne sounded interesting to the young scientist. So, without even visiting, but with enthusiastic encouragement from his wife who had travelled to Australia previously, Strasser packed his bags and headed down under.

After about three years and an attractive job offer from the Cancer Institute in the Netherlands, Strasser was persuaded to stay at the WEHI to launch an independent research career. Since that time his lab has grown from one person (himself) to around 11 scientists, and Strasser has amassed an extremely impressive CV.

He has held numerous fellowships and special awards, and is currently an NHMRC Australia Fellow and co-head of his division at WEHI with Professor Jerry Adams.

Strasser's discoveries have strongly influenced our understanding of apoptosis signalling and its role in shaping the immune system, and besides appearing in one of the 'big three' journals (Nature, Science or Cell) almost every year of his not-all-that-long career, these achievements have been recognised with a plethora of national and international awards.

Amongst these, Strasser became a Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science in 2003, was recently appointed as co-head of the new ACRF Centre for Therapeutic Target Discovery in Melbourne, and in August, he joined fellow scientists, Professors Alan Cowman and Doug Hilton, in receiving one of the inaugural Australian Fellowships from the NHMRC.