Professor Antony Braithwaite

Professor Antony Braithwaite is the head of the newest research group at Children's Medical Research Institute (CMRI) called the Cell Transformation Unit, which was established in 2006. He is a Senior Principal Research Fellow at CMRI.   Professor Braithwaite obtained his first degree from the University of Auckland, New Zealand, majoring in Cell Biology and Mathematics, followed by a Masters degree in Cell Biology that was awarded with First Class Honours. He then completed a PhD at the Australian National University in Microbiology. Following this he carried out postdoctoral training in Canberra and was awarded the Howard Florey Fellowship that allowed him to work in England at the Marie Curie Cancer Research Institute. He returned to the ANU in 1988/89 where he established his own laboratory studying basic mechanisms in cancer cell formation. He was promoted to Senior Research Fellow in 1991. In 1996, he moved to the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, where he took up a Personal Professorship in Pathology. During this time he received a considerable number of peer-reviewed grants from, for example, the Health Research Council of New Zealand and the Royal Society of NZ and in 2004 was awarded an HRC Program Grant. In 2007, he was awarded a Cancer Institute NSW Research Leaders Program Grant to help establish his research at CMRI.   Professor Braithwaite’s research is focused on the regulation of cell proliferation and cell survival and the role played by p53 in these processes. He has published widely in these areas and in 2004 hosted the 12th International p53 Workshop.   Professor Braithwaite has served on numerous national committees in New Zealand including chairing HRC grant assessing committees and was a panel member for the recent Performance Based Research Assessment exercise carried out in New Zealand. He also acted as an expert adviser to the Environmental Risk Management Authority in New Zealand. He is an editorial board member of two cancer journals. While at the University of Otago, Professor Braithwaite also established the first course in human genetics.