Craving knowledge? Look around you. This is the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute. It is also known as WEHI. It stands as Australia’s oldest medical research institute.
WEHI’s story began with Eliza Hall. Following her husband Walter Russell Hall’s death she established a trust. Harry Brookes Allen encouraged using some of that trust to start a medical research institute in 1915.
The vision was clear. It was for the institute to be the birthplace of discoveries. Discoveries would render service to mankind. They would prevent and remove disease. They would mitigate suffering.
In 1915, the Melbourne Hospital offered a home for the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Research in Pathology and Medicine. Gordon Mathison the new institute’s director designate died in the ANZAC Battle of Gallipoli. Floors set aside for the institute went to the Commonwealth Serum Laboratories until a new director was found.
Sydney Patterson became the first director in 1919. He resigned in 1923. Charles Kellaway followed him. Kellaway formalized research. He supported local researchers. He secured public support and Commonwealth grants. He oversaw building the first separate institute building near the Royal Melbourne Hospital which opened in 1942.
Under Kellaway, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute earned international recognition. It became a center for medical research excellence by World War II.
Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet directed the institute from 1944 to 1965. He made it prominent for virological research and immunology. Burnet won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1960. He shared it with Sir Peter Medawar. They discovered immunological tolerance.
Sir Gustav Nossal became director in 1965. The institute grew. Scientists made discoveries in immune system control cell cycle regulation and malaria. Professor Donald Metcalf’s group discovered colony-stimulating factors CSFs. These helped over 10 million cancer patients worldwide.
Suzanne Cory led between 1996 and 2009. Doug Hilton led from 2009 to 2023. In November 2023 Ken Smith was announced as the institute’s seventh director. He began in April 2024.
Before its centenary in 2015, the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute expanded. A new west wing nearly doubled its size in 2012. Funding came from the Victorian and Australian Governments and The Atlantic Philanthropies.
In 2020, the institute rebranded itself to WEHI. It updated its motto to Brighter together.
WEHI focuses solely on medical research. This includes cancers, inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases and infectious diseases.
WEHI is organized into divisions. These include ACRF Chemical Biology and ACRF Cancer and stem cells. Others are Bioinformatics and Blood Cells and Blood Cancer. There is also Clinical Translation plus Epigenetics and Development. Then there is Immunology and Infectious Diseases and Immune Defence. Further divisions are Inflammation plus Personalised Oncology. Next is Population Health and Immunity and Structural Biology. The last one is Ubiquitin Signalling.
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute is one of five research centers. It established the ACRF Centre for Therapeutic Target Discovery. This is a collaborative cancer research center.
WEHI is the Department of Medical Biology at the University of Melbourne. Students can earn degrees. These include Bachelor of Science Honours, Bachelor of Biomedicine Honours or Doctor of Philosophy. Medical students can also study Advanced Medical Science.
WEHI’s history includes groundbreaking discoveries. CSFs have helped over 20 million cancer patients recover. They revolutionized bone marrow transplantation.
Jacques Miller discovered the function of the thymus. This revolutionized understanding of the immune system.
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute continues to push boundaries. It strives to improve health worldwide. WEHI remains committed to its mission. It is to serve mankind through medical research.