Epstein-Barr virus
QIMR Berghofer’s early history of investigating unknown viruses that were causing tropical diseases, placed it in a unique position of expertise to branch into other emerging fields of research in the mid-1900s.
This included viruses that were causing cancer in animals.
The discovery of Epstein Barr virus in 1964 by researchers Sir Anthony Epstein, Yvonne Barr and Bert Achong at the Middlesex Hospital in London was a pivotal moment for medical research globally. It was the first virus found to cause cancer in humans.
QIMR researcher Professor John Pope, who was working in this field in Queensland, began investigating these findings. He then made the critical discovery that provided the first very important clue of how EBV can cause cancer, by showing that the virus is ‘immortalised’, or essentially persists forever, in a type of white blood cell, called B cells.
His PhD student Professor Denis Moss continued this research. He was the first to show that immune T cells keep check on these virus-infected B cells in healthy people. But if the T cells are removed, for example in an immunocompromised patient, then the EBV-infected B cells can grow rapidly and cause cancer.
QIMR Berghofer researchers over the decades have continued to collaborate with international colleagues and have made major contributions to the world’s understanding of the biology and the genetics of viruses like EBV. They’ve used this knowledge to learn how the immune system works and to develop treatments.
Now, lifesaving cell therapies to treat viral complications and cancers in immunocompromised patients, developed at QIMR Berghofer and produced in the Institute’s dedicated cell manufacturing facility, Q-Gen Cell Therapeutics, are delivered to patients around Australia and the world.
Researchers are also developing preventative and therapeutic vaccines for virus-associated cancers and autoimmune diseases including multiple sclerosis. They are also working on cell therapies to treat other virus-associated cancers, including blood cancers, and solid cancers such as head and neck cancers and the brain cancer, glioblastoma.
It is a remarkable and internationally recognised program of research at the Institute, and it all began with discoveries made by QIMR Berghofer researchers in the 1960s and 1970s.