One of Australia ‘s most distinguished molecular biologists, Dr. Cory is the first woman elected as President of the Australian Academy of Science. She was also the first woman to be Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (1996-2009). Her research has had a major impact on the understanding of immunology and the development of cancer.
In the 1980s, together with her career-long scientific partner Dr. Jerry Adams, Dr. Cory discovered that the chromosome translocations hallmarking Burkitt’s lymphoma and mouse plasmacytoma fuse immunoglobulin gene loci with the Myc oncogene. By developing Eμ–myc transgenic mice, they proved unequivocally that the translocations were the underlying cause of these tumors. The discovery in their laboratory that Bcl-2, the oncogene activated by chromosome translocation in human follicular lymphoma, promotes cell survival rather than proliferation and accelerates Myc-induced lymphomagenesis revealed, for the first time, that impaired apoptosis is central to tumorigenesis. Regulation of cell death by the Bcl-2 family is now the central focus of their research program, which hopes to develop more effective cancer therapeutics.
Career Highlights
2012 Associate, Japan Academy
2011 Colin Thomson Medal, Association for International Cancer Research
2010 President, Australian Academy of Science
2009 Chevalier, Legion of Honor (France)
2009 Pearl Meister Greengard Prize
2007 Associate Member, European Molecular Biology Organization
2004-2007 Board of Directors, AACR
2004 Academician of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences
2002 Royal Medal of the Royal Society, London
2001 L’Oréal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science
1998 Australia Prize
1998 Charles S. Mott Prize, General Motors Cancer Research Foundation
1997 Elected Foreign Member, National Academy of Sciences, Washington, DC
1992 Elected Fellow, Royal Society, London
1986 Elected Fellow, Australian Academy of Science
1968 PhD, University of Cambridge