Pride of Australia: Professor gives devils a chance

POA: PROFESSOR Greg Woods is literally changing the face of cancer research in Tasmania.

Immunologist professor Greg Woods for Pride of Australia.

PROFESSOR Greg Woods is literally changing the face of cancer research in Tasmania.

The immunologist switched his focus from studying cancer in humans to studying cancer in Tasmanian devils 10 years ago and has helped bring progress in the fight against devil facial tumour disease.

“When the disease was first identified there was almost no idea of what it was, how it was transmitted and why the immune system wasn’t able to respond,” Prof Woods said.

A healthy Tasmanian devil.

“With support from the Save the Tasmanian Devil Program, Save the Tasmanian Devil Appeal, various research funding bodies, numerous national and international collaborators, we have learnt an enormous amount about the cancer and its affect on the Tasmanian devil which has provided impetus for vaccine work, but there is still a great deal of work required.”

Prof Woods turned his fascination of biology into a career which has involved researching various cancers and molecular biology in Tasmania and Canada.

He currently works from the Menzies Institute for Medical Research where his team is set to release 20 devils inoculated with a new vaccine in September.

“We hope to determine how many of the immunised devils produced an immune response to DFTD, find out if the released devils effectively integrate into the wild and if they are protected from DFTD,” Prof Woods said.

For his research, Prof Woods has been nominated for a News Corp Australia Pride of Australia medal in the Care and Compassion category.

“It is a great honour, for which I feel very humble,” he said.

“I see it as a team effort as I am fortunate to have a good research team behind me at Menzies and a wife who is very supportive.”

Nominate an unsung hero here. Pride of Australia Medal nominations close today.