Interview. Cancer vaccines and immunotherapy of autoimmune diseases.

Vasso Apostolopoulos heads the Immunology and Vaccine Laboratory of Burnet Institute (Australia). She completed her PhD in 1995 at the Austin Research Institute (Australia). Her work on cancer vaccine development has been in clinical trial since 1994. In the last 16 years, she has received more than 100 awards/honors for her achievements. Most notable are the Premiers Award for Medical Research, Victorian Young Australian of the Year, Channel 10/Herald Sun Young Achiever of the Year, Victorian Tall Poppy, inductee into the Victorian Honour Roll of Women, a torchbearer in the International Athens 2004 Olympic Torch Relay and was named Woman of the Year. In 1998, she received the prestigious NHMRC CJ Martin Fellowship and undertook research at the Scripps Research Institute (CA, USA) until 2001. In 2001, she returned to the Austin Research Institute (now the Burnet Institute) and was a NHMRC RD Wright Fellow until 2007. She is currently a Professor, Principle Research Fellow, Sir Zelman Cowen Cancer Research Fellow, Australia Day Ambassador and a Patron of the Womens Health Network. She has published more than 120 papers and books and is an inventor on 12 patents. She is on the board and a regular reviewer for a number of journals. Her current interests are in the development of new improved cancer vaccines and new modes of antigen delivery for immune stimulation. She is also interested in the 3D x-ray crystal structures of peptide-MHC complexes.