A Glasgow professor who created the first ever cancer vaccine has announced his retirement.
Ian Frazer is world-renowned for co-inventing the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer along alongside Jian Zhou at the University of Queensland, Australia.
The vaccine has been routinely offered to Girls aged 12-13 in Scotland since 2008, and three years ago boys of the same age were offered the vaccine, reports the Daily Record.
Ian's life saving vaccine has gone into 440 million arms and it continues to have a major impact with a recognised drop in early signs of cervical cancer among women who have received it.
The World Health Organization says 116 countries now vaccinate against HPV.
Although he developed a world changing vaccination, Ian remains humble despite being dubbed "God's Gift to Women" by an Australian newspaper.
Announcing his retirement as a full-time professor at Queensland University, the Edinburgh University graduate, reflected on his achievement saying: “I think it’s a testament to the benefits of medical research.
“If you really put the money in, get good people involved with the problem, you come up with the solution. We probably need to do more of that because, I think, the most important message I would take out is we face a lot of problems in health that could be solved with research.”
The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne headhunted the genius in 1980.
It was during a time when he was working out of a “broom closet” on the hospital campus that he delved into immunotherapy.
The 69-year-old announced his retirement at the oration named in honour of Zhou, in Brisbane.
The Chinese scientist died before seeing their work with the vaccine come to fruition but Frazer has always acknowledged his contribution.
The Glaswegian's wife Caroline, who he met at university, said she was thrilled by what he had done to “help women everywhere” but said while he was flattered to be called God’s Gift they “had a good laugh” about it.
Before the vaccine came along, cervical cancer was one of the biggest killers of women around the world, killing 250,000 a year.
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