Garvan celebrates 40 years

Sydney's Garvan Institute of Medical Research yesterday threw a party to celebrate its 40th birthday.

The institute, in inner-city Sydney, first opened its doors in 1963 with the help of a gift of £100,000 by Helen Mills, the daughter of former Minister of Justice, Attorney General and Colonial Treasurer of NSW in the late 1880s, James Patrick Garvan.

The Garvan now employs more than 300 people and is recognised as a leader in gene-based research. Its main research fields are cancer, diabetes and obesity, osteoporosis, neurobiology, pituitary disease, arthritis and asthma.

Garvan chairman Bill Ferris noted that when the institute first opened 40 years ago, not a single human gene had been isolated. "It was not until 1977 that the first human gene was cloned," he said. "Today, every one of our 50,000 genes is on the internet.

"But it's the importance of the things that don't change that keep us together," he said.

Executive director John Shine said since the decoding of the human genome, the next 40 years of the Garvan's history could see the banishment of many diseases.

"Garvan enters the next 40 years at time of unprecedented excitement in medical research around the world," he said.

NSW Health Minister Craig Knowles announced a new postdoctoral research fellowship, funded in perpetuity by a local family. The amount of the fellowship was not disclosed.

Rev George Pell, the Archbishop of Sydney, said it was "a commonplace" that the achievements of modern medicine rivalled Biblical miracles. He urged the Garvan to continue to excel in research, within the ethical guidelines specified by the Catholic code of ethics.

Among other guests at the event was Dr Les Lazarus, the institute's first director.