Festschrift for Professor Margaret Burgess AO.

In honour of the retirement of our director Margaret Burgess, National Centre for Immunisation Research and Surveillance (NCIRS) held a Festschrift on 5th to 6th February 2004. The themes of the event were Vaccines for the 21st Century and Congenital and Neonatal Infections. International guests attended the Festschrift, as well as over 180 colleagues and co-workers from across Australia.

The double helix and immunology.

The immune system can recognize and produce antibodies to virtually any molecule in the Universe. This enormous diversity arises from the ingenious reshuffling of DNA sequences encoding components of the immune system. Immunology is an example of a field completely transformed during the past 50 years by the discovery of the structure of DNA and the emergence of DNA technologies that followed.

Gates, GAVI, the glorious global funds and more: all you ever wanted to know.

Global immunization programmes have achieved some remarkable successes. In 1977, Frank Fenner's Commission declared smallpox to have been eradicated by an 11-year-long intensive campaign. The Expanded Programme on Immunization encompassed six important childhood vaccines and reached over three-quarters of the world's children.