The recirculating pool of lymphocytes, with origins in the bone marrow and a thymus “finishing school” for some, will be used to illustrate my own journey from country town through Vet School to WEHI and beyond (then back to WEHI as a current Board member)! Much of the recirculation has been around Parkville/Melbourne – WEHI, Melbourne Zoo, CSL and Foursight – with some interesting spin-offs and stop-overs in the circuit.

The discovery in the late 1960s that T cells and B cells interact in antibody production and that, although both have specificity for antigen, only B cells produce antibodies (Miller & Mitchell, 1969, Thymus and antigen reactive cells. Transplantation Reviews, 1: 3-42) added a new dimension to cellular immunology, immunoregulation in particular.  I continued this line of work as a post-doc in Stanford, Mill Hill and Basel and, on return to WEHI, initiated the parasitology program that, by the late 1980s, was the largest single program in WEHI.  My own special interest was in the immunology of host-parasite relationships but the group always had a translation objective, namely vaccines and diagnostic tests for human and veterinary parasitic diseases. Malaria research dominated from the time we started to attract major international (e.g. Rockefeller Foundation) and Australian Government funding for the “Great Neglected Diseases”, malaria in particular but also leishmaniasis and schistosomiasis.

Spin-offs and stop-overs in the WEHI recirculation included WHO Geneva, Merck USA, the Philippines and PNG, Melbourne Zoo (where I was able to capitalise on regional contacts made in parasitology research for conservation purposes), CSL Limited at the time of the highly successful privatisation, and the establishment 20 years ago of Foursight with Nossal, Penington and Stocker and our role, inter alia, as Chief Scientists in Victoria and advisors in science, technology and innovation to various investment funds and to Government, industry and academia (“linking people with ideas to people with money”).

This presentation will start with the discovery of T cells and B cells, then highlight some achievements in the WEHI parasitology program in the 1980s in particular some immunological correlates of resistance to infection in 3 model systems in the quest for vaccines. I will also stress the influence of superb mentors and collaborators in one’s life in science,  broadly defined, but which definitely includes laboratory-based basic research and its translation (“combining team work with high technology in a bubbling cauldron of ideas with clinical and commercial outcomes”).