St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research (1958 - )

Summary

St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research (SVI) was officially opened in 1958 under the name of St Vincent's School of Medical Research. SVI is member of the Mary Aikenhead Ministries and closely affiliated with St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne and The University of Melbourne. In the early years it had a focus on protein sequencing and developing an automated proces that became know as 'Matilda' The Sequenator. The research focus subsequently expanded to include diseases such as cancer, Type 1 and 2 diabetes, heart disease, bone disease and Alzheimer's disease. SVI has made breakthroughs in relation to hormones such as PTHrP, angiotensin, and chorionic gonadotropin, enzymes like AMPK, the GMCSF receptor, and have played a central role in the Australian Islet Transplantation Program.

Details

By 2024 their research areas were grouped as: Bioinformatics; Cancer; Healthy Ageing; Immunology; Infectious Disease; and Regenerative Medicine. In each group there was one or more laboratories or labs. Annual Reports are available from their website dating from 1999 and Newsletters from March 2022.

Chronology

May 1957

Operational event - Pehr Edman, as inaugural Director, commences his appointment

1958

Career position - Geoff Begg employed as a junior laboratory assistant

23 April 1958

Operational event - Official opening

1959 - 1961

Research - NHMRC Grants (Edman) - Enzyme structure

1962

Research - NHMRC Grant (Edman) - Chemical structure of a short chain of amino acids

1962 - 1970

Career position - Elizabeth Minasian employed as a research assistant

1963

Research - NHMRC Grant (Edman) - Sequencing chemistry

1964 - 1965

Research - NHMRC Grant (Edman) - Sequencer development

1966 - 1972

Career position - Agnes Henschen worked at SVI with Edman

1968

Operational event - Begg and Edman publish their work on development of "Matilda" The Sequenator

1970 - 1972

Research - NHMRC Grants (Henschen) - Sequencing of a very large protein (fibrinogen)

1972

Operational event - Edman resigned to move to the Max-Planck Institute of Biochemistry in Germany

1973 - 1988

Operational event - Frank Morgan appointed Director and adds protein crystallography as a research activity

1978

Research - First protein structure 'solved' at SVI - lysozyme

1988 - 2002

Operational event - Professor T. J. (Jack) Martin joined SVI as Director

2002 -

Operational event - Professor Tom Kay appointed SVI Director

2003

Operational event - New building opened

Related entries

Archival resources

St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, Archives and Heritage Centre

• St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, 1893 - , https://www.svhm.org.au/about-us/our-heritage/archives; St Vincent's Hospital Melbourne, Archives and Heritage Centre. Details

Published resources

Resource Sections

• 'A revolution in protein sequencing: Case Study', in NHMRC Impact Case Studies, National Health and Medical Research Council, Canberra, ACT, 2021-12-17. https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/about-us/resources/impact-case-studies/protein-sequenator. Details
• 'Revisting the sequenator', in St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research website, St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research, Melbourne, Victoria, 2022. https://www.svi.edu.au/news-events/revisiting-the-sequenator/. Details
• 'Our People', in St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research website, St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research, 2024, https://www.svi.edu.au/about/our-people/. Details
• 'Our History', in St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research website, St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research, 2024, https://www.svi.edu.au/about/our-history/. Details
• 'Home Page', in St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research website, St Vincent's Institute of Medical Research, 2024, https://www.svi.edu.au/. Details

See also

• Egan, Bryan, Ways of a Hospital: St Vincent's Melbourne 1890s-1990s (St Leonards: Allen & Unwin, 1993). Pages 206- 214 also covering St Vincent's School of Medical Research. Details