Professor Bryan Williams, (Hon) FRSNZ, FAA

Professor Bryan Williams is a member of the Centre for Cancer Research.

Professor Williams is Emeritus Director and Distinguished Scientist at the Hudson Institute of Medical Research

Biography

Professor Bryan Williams is Emeritus Director and Distinguished Scientist at Hudson Institute of Medical Research.

A distinguished researcher and international authority on innate immunity and cancer biology, Professor Williams has made major contributions to our understanding of the antiviral mechanisms of interferons, advancing their therapeutic utility. His discoveries in the 2-5A-RNaseL pathway, cloning and characterisation of protein kinase R, and signalling pathways activated by interferons and innate immune activation by small interfering RNAs, have opened new therapeutic opportunities.

Professor Williams received his PhD from the Department of Microbiology at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Following postdoctoral training at the National Institute for Medical Research, Mill Hill, London, he held faculty positions at the University of Toronto and the Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, Canada. He was Chairman of the Department of Cancer Biology at the Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, USA, from 1991 until joining the Monash Institute of Medical Research as Director in 2006 (now Hudson Institute of Medical Research). He served as Hudson Institute Director and CEO until July 2017.

As the 1990 recipient of the prestigious Milstein Award, the International Society for Interferon and Cytokine Research (ISICR) recognised Professor Williams for his contributions to advancing interferon research for the treatment of human diseases. Elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Society of New Zealand in 1997, Professor Williams served as President of ISICR from 1998 to 1999. In 2005, he shared the Maurice Saltzman Award from the Mt Sinai Health Care Foundation, for his leadership contribution to the Case Comprehensive Cancer Center and in 2006 received the Dolph Adams Award for the most highly cited review article published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology. In 2008, he received the Boltzmann Award for international research collaboration, awarded by the European Cytokine Society. In 2013, he was elected as a Fellow of both the Australian Academy of Science and the American Academy of Microbiology. In 201,9 he received a Distinguished Service Award from ISICR.

Professor Williams serves on the Boards of Pacific Edge Ltd, Cartherics Pty Ltd, EngeneIC Pty Ltd and Zehna Therapeutics. He is Chair of the Board of Trustees, Hope Funds for Cancer Research (Newport, RI, USA) and a member of the International Science Advisory Panel for Healthier Lives, New Zealand. Since 2019 he has served remotely as Scientific Director, Office of Strategic Alliance and Technology Development, Lerner Research Institute, Cleveland Clinic, Cleveland OH USA.

Professor Williams is an Editor for Journal of Virology. He also serves on the Editorial Boards of Journal of Interferon and Cytokine Research, Viral Immunology, Cytokine and Growth Factor Reviews, and Frontiers in Cancer Genetics, and is a Faculty Member of F1000Prime.

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