Jacques Miller receives prestigious Lasker Award for medical research

University of Melbourne Emeritus Professor Jacques Miller has won the Lasker Award – an award that is widely recognised as one of the highest international honours in medical research.

Professor Miller, who worked at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute for around 30 years, jointly received the 2019 Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award with Emory University Professor Max Cooper for “discoveries that have launched the course of modern immunology” though the identification of immune cells called T and B cells.

Professor Miller’s groundbreaking discovery on the function of the thymus has enabled critical research into vaccine development, organ transplants, identifying and treating autoimmune diseases and immunotherapy to treat cancer.

University of Melbourne Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Research) Jim McCluskey congratulated Professor Miller and the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute on the award.

“Jacques is an eminent scientist whose work in immunology has changed the lives of people around the world. His research has been recognised globally, having received the 2018 Japan Prize for Medical Science and Medicinal Science. We congratulate Jacques on winning the Lasker Award for his groundbreaking work.”

Professor Miller’s decades-long career in immunology has led to research that now enables doctors to treat recalcitrant cancers like melanoma and some types of leukaemia using T cell immunotherapy.