Left to right: Professor John Tyrer with three of his "disciples" — Mervyn Eadie, myself and Bryan Emmerson — taken in 1999 when I retired as Director of QIMR.

As I reflect on my professional career, the one word that repeatedly springs to mind is "mentorship". I have been fortunate in having had truly remarkable mentors at several key points in my career.

The first was my father, who, while not university educated, was an intelligent man who ran the family printing business. His professional contacts convinced him of the importance of a sound education for his only son, and when I declared an interest in Medicine and Law he suggested that the two in combination would be very useful.

I chose Medicine — in part, because I was intrigued by our family illnesses and surmised that an insight into them would be of benefit to the whole family. This, of course, proved correct. Throughout my school and university years, my mother suffered from post-encephalitic parkinsonism. This placed a great burden on my younger sister, who undertook the family's domestic responsibilities when still in high school.

My father died during my fourth year of medical studies and my mother soon after my graduation.

My next influential mentor was Frank Garlick, a perspicacious surgeon at the Royal Brisbane Hospital (RBH). It was he who, in 1956, detected a spark of enthusiasm for inquiry and research in a young medical student and so encouraged me to pursue my then interest in malignant melanoma.

My dissertation (published in Trephine, the annual magazine of The University of Queensland's Medical Students Society) won the prize for the best research project by an undergraduate student at the university's medical school, and this experience kindled my life-long interest in medical research.

After Garlick came John Tyrer, who had not long been appointed to the first full-time chair of medicine at The University of Queensland based at the RBH. Tyrer steadily built a strong department of medicine, having had the foresight to create several "temporary clinical lectureships". These positions were filled by aspiring medical registrars who had successfully negotiated the hurdle of membership of the Royal Australasian College of Physicians, and provided them with the opportunity to combine clinical responsibilities with research — usually towards an MD thesis.

It is interesting to reflect on the number of people who spent their formative years being nurtured in such positions who subsequently went on to become academic leaders in Australia. They include Bryan Emmerson (rheumatologist, professor of medicine and head of the department, based at the Princess Alexandra Hospital, Brisbane, 1985–1994) and Mervyn Eadie (neurologist, professor of medicine and head of department at Royal Brisbane Hospital, 1994–1997), to name but two.

I greatly lament the fact that, during the 1980s, these positions were abolished progressively as increasing financial constraints affected the university.

It was as a temporary clinical lecturer that I found myself fascinated when I realised that four young women with haemochromatosis were from the same family. The literature at that time indicated that the disease was rare in women, especially premenopausal women, and that it was usually due to excess alcohol consumption. These women were all teetotallers, firing up my interest in challenging the existing dogma.

Encouraged by Tyrer and his deputy, Martin Lloyd, I undertook a systematic study of iron metabolism in families of patients with haemochromatosis and families of patients with alcoholic cirrhosis.1 This, together with some rather tedious animal studies in iron-loaded rabbits, eventually led to a successful MD thesis and several publications, one of which occasioned an editorial in The Lancet.2 But, more importantly, these achievements provided me an opportunity to work with the doyenne of liver disease, Professor (later Dame) Sheila Sherlock — again following overtures made by John Tyrer on my behalf.

Much has been written about Sheila Sherlock and her enduring influence on aspiring hepatologists from many countries, including the many obituaries published following her death last year.3,4

In 1965, I was just one of some 20 research fellows — from countries far and wide, including the USA, South Africa and Asia — working in her unit, located in wooden huts up on the roof of the Royal Free Hospital in Gray's Inn Road, London. Sheila took a sincere personal interest in each of us and our careers.

Given my published work in haemochromatosis and iron metabolism, Sheila resolved that I should "broaden horizons". She suggested I tackle the topical subject of bilirubin metabolism and Gilbert's syndrome with Barbara Billing, who had recently joined the unit as its only basic scientist. It was an enjoyable and productive association that added new information on haemolysis and Gilbert's syndrome, which Sheila quickly put into clinical perspective.5 Barbara Billing herself was also an excellent mentor and taught me a great deal about laboratory research. Like other fellows in the unit, I was not only exposed to the whole repertoire of liver disease, but also Sheila Sherlock's brilliant clinical acumen and lucid thought processes.

Sherlock made a particular effort to train her fellows to present their work at meetings clearly without notes, and set an example by always rehearsing her own major lectures and speeches with staff members and research fellows. Her clarity of communication was legendary. She would convert an amateurish first draft into a manuscript promptly accepted by the New England Journal of Medicine — without revision! She exposed us to "the big names". I felt privileged to be sent to Caroli's unit in Paris to lecture on our work (Caroli, the famous French hepatologist, is noted for Caroli's disease, a congenital cystic dilatation of the intrahepatic bile ducts and associated disorders). Most of her fellows had similar experiences.

My subsequent international training, some years later, was equally important but different and complementary.

In 1972–1973, Kurt Isselbacher — at that time chief of gastroenterology at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Harvard Medical School — introduced me to North American academic medicine and laboratory science. Kurt was yet another active mentor, involving me in giving lectures to Harvard medical students, presenting medical grand rounds at MGH, and a harrowing experience as discussant at one of the weekly clinicopathological conferences, published, as usual, in the New England Journal of Medicine.6 The case was one of cholestasis and cholangitis in a man with alpha-1-antitrypsin deficiency. He also recruited me as a contributor to Harrison's Textbook of Medicine, a unique opportunity. I have continued to contribute to each subsequent edition of the book as author of the chapter on haemochromatosis.7

In 1978, a sabbatical at the Rigshospitalet in Copenhagen with Niels Tygstrup — renowned for his extensive work on quantitative tests of liver function — broadened my horizons once again. His unit had strong expertise and interest in basic immunology as it applied to the liver, adding a further dimension to my perspective of international hepatology.

In 1966, I had been fortunate in securing a senior lectureship in the department of medicine at The University of Queensland and the Royal Brisbane Hospital. The next vacancy did not occur until eight years later!

The department had been progressively strengthened by Tyrer, and was arguably the most productive department in the biological sciences and medicine faculties at the university. With my two inspired colleagues, June Halliday and Graham Cooksley, I established the first academic liver unit in Australia, which, over the years, attracted numerous scholars, both science-based and medical, each adding stimulus and challenge. These scholars included, among others: Geoff Farrell, head of the Storr Liver Unit in Sydney; Mark Bassett, gastroenterologist and associate professor, the Canberra Hospital and Clinical School; Keith Tolman, head of gastroenterology at Utah Medical School, Salt Lake City; and Paul Adams, an international authority on haemochromatosis, from Ontario, Canada.

Our research focus was, of course, on haemochromatosis and iron metabolism, with our original research contributions opening doors to both the International Association for the Study of the Liver and the biennial meetings on iron metabolism. Fortunately, these international meetings were held in alternate years.

Graham Cooksley later extended our research repertoire to include the immunology of liver disease and then viral hepatitis.

Our combination of two physician scientists with a full-time NHMRC-funded basic scientist proved a successful formula. We were awarded an NHMRC program grant (iron metabolism and liver disease) in 1982 that was renewed at every subsequent quinquennial review until it was incorporated into the block grant for the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in 1998 (see below).

During this period, I was privileged to be elected President of the International Association for the Study of the Liver. We hosted the World Congress of Iron Metabolism twice: in 1989, in Brisbane, and in 2001, in Cairns; we also hosted the Biennial Scientific Meeting of the International Association for the Study of the Liver in 1990 on the Gold Coast.

Left to right: Graham Cooksley, myself, June Halliday and John Tyrer — in 1982, at the announcement of the NHMRC Program Grant.

In 1988, I undertook my last sabbatical at the Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR). This experience allowed me to become acquainted with the Institute's staff and science and successfully apply, in 1989, to become its Director.

The 10 years that followed are now history, but I still find it interesting to reflect on the developments that occurred at QIMR during that time. My predecessor, Chev Kidson, had made significant advances by linking the Institute with The University of Queensland (rather than the State health department) by recruiting some high quality staff, and by securing funding from the Queensland government for a new purpose-built 11-storey institute — the Bancroft Centre.

The Centre was opened by the then State Premier, Wayne Goss, in 1991. This new facility allowed a fivefold expansion of the Institute, achieved smoothly over the next five years. Queenslanders were recruited back from overseas, including Graham Kay, who established QIMR's transgenic facilities. Others came from the southern Australian States, notably Anne Kelso and Andrew Boyd among those recruited from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, with the assistance and strong support of Sir Gustav Nossal. The Liver Unit — myself, June Halliday and Graham Cooksley and some 25 staff — moved en bloc into the Bancroft Centre (Graham as Director of the Clinical Research Centre of the Royal Brisbane Hospital Foundation, which was also situated in the building).

It soon became apparent that the expanding Institute would benefit from independent peer review. In 1994, with the strong support of Judy Whitworth, then chair of the research committee of the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), I was able to put together a formidable review committee. Chaired by Keith Peters, chairman of the department of medicine at Cambridge University, UK, and including Peter Doherty (then professor of immunology at St Jude's Hospital for Children, Memphis, Tennessee), Bob Williamson (then professor of biochemistry, St Mary's Hospital, London), the committee included three Australians. Professors Fiona Stanley (the Institute for Child Health, Western Australia), Richard Smallwood (professor of medicine, the Austin and Repatriation Hospital, Melbourne) and Ashley Dunn (the Ludwig Institute, Melbourne) were all nominated by the NHMRC.

A week-long in-depth review by this committee made a huge impact on the strategy and further research directions adopted by the Institute.

I also believe that this committee influenced the NHMRC with respect to block funding. Its last term of reference, clearly the most challenging, was to address whether QIMR should apply for block funding. After deliberation, the committee concluded that, "in the Australian context", QIMR should indeed apply to the NHMRC for block funding. However, it was also clear that the largely international committee saw significant disadvantages in block funding. Keith Peters conveyed these sentiments, at the time, to Judy Whitworth.

Interestingly, since 1998, NMHRC block funding has been progressively abolished and the program and project funding system restructured. As a result, total NHMRC funding to the QIMR (including program grants, project grants and fellowships) has increased from $6.0 million in 1998 to $7.82 million in 2002 — an increase of about 30%.

By 1996, the "new" Bancroft Centre was fully occupied and we dreamed of new ways to expand the Institute. All were futile until, in 1998, the fortuitous juxtaposition of two "once-in-a-lifetime" events enabled us to realise our dream.

Firstly, we were approached, anonymously, by a US organisation — which we later found out was Atlantic Philanthropies in New York — after they had conducted an independent assessment of the Institute. After protracted discussion with their Dublin-based consultant, two visits by him, and submission of a detailed business plan, we were advised that their board would support our "dream", with a donation of $20 million, conditional on our raising the remaining $35 million required within six months! Of course, this proved a difficult challenge, but with the bipartisan support of the Queensland government ($20 million), the assistance of the Leukaemia Foundation ($5 million) and the QIMR Trust ($10 million) the target was achieved.

The second fortuitous event was the concomitant rebuilding of the Royal Brisbane Hospital and the Royal Women's Hospital, which released space for a new building close to the Bancroft Centre. State authorities graciously provided the space to QIMR and the new 10-storey Comprehensive Cancer Research Centre was completed in 2001. Soon afterwards, Mr Clive Berghofer (a Queensland grazier and real estate developer) generously donated $5 million for the naming rights for 10 years — a rare occurrence in Australian science!

A special feature of the development has been the inclusion of a clinical trials centre occupied and administered by QPharm, a newly established independent company that conducts phase I clinical trials of new compounds.

State authorities have also granted QIMR the former Queensland Radium Institute (QRI) building, available from 2004, which lies between the old and new QIMR buildings. Thus, when fully developed, the new QIMR will occupy three buildings and have a total staff of over a thousand.

The new Queensland Institute of Medical Research (QIMR) (left), incorporating the Bancroft Centre, and the Clive Berghofer Comprehensive Cancer Research Centre, with the former Queensland Radium Institute building in between. From 2004, QIMR will comprise all three buildings.

In 2002, on retiring from the QIMR, I was invited to become the Director of Research at the redeveloped Royal Brisbane and Royal Women's Hospital — in some respects, a position more challenging than Director of QIMR!

While I continue to enjoy some clinical practice and teaching, the challenge to stimulate research in the hospital environment is formidable. For decades, the RBH has been the flagship of Queensland's hospital health and medical research effort, but financial stringencies of recent years have indeed taken their toll. While Australian medical research institutes have increased in size and number over the past 10 years, university departments, and particularly our teaching hospitals, have found it increasingly difficult to fund research. Moreover, with ever-increasing clinical demands, less time for research and uncertain career paths, I believe young graduates are now discouraged from embarking on clinical research or a career in research or academia. Although this is, to some extent, a global problem, it is so particularly in Australia, where, for example, in contrast to Canada and the USA, there is a very significant difference between stipends for research fellows as opposed to those in clinical posts. I sincerely hope that current efforts by the NHMRC and others to boost clinical research, such as with the introduction of NHMRC practitioner fellowships and the NHMRC Centres of Clinical Excellence Program, will be successful.

Thus, I am delighted that the potential gap between basic and clinical research has been bridged at QIMR. The Institute's present Director, Michael Good (with an international reputation in the immunology of infectious diseases), and Deputy Director, Adèle Green (an internationally acclaimed epidemiologist), are both medically qualified scientists; as well, several of the research staff have clinical appointments at the Royal Brisbane Hospital. The Institute's research portfolio now spans the full spectrum, from fundamental molecular research to clinical translational research and clinical trials and, more recently, a research program in Indigenous health.

None of my contributions would have been possible without the devotion and enduring support over 42 years of my wife, Margaret (née Ingram), herself a University of Queensland graduate in education. Margaret has not only raised and nurtured five children, fostering their university education (in medicine, education, psychology, environmental science and music), but has also taken them around the world during my extensive years of training and study leave.

Also, it should be apparent that I feel and have always felt passionately about two themes — the importance of mentorship in medicine and biomedical science, and bridging basic science and clinical medicine (from the bench to the bedside and back) to produce clinically relevant research.

It is because young researchers were inspired by their mentors that clinical science, and indeed clinical medicine, have become what they are today, and this needs to continue. The importance of this practice has been enunciated well by Dean William Welch, of Johns Hopkins fame, who wrote: