Professor Christopher Goodnow

Professor Chris Goodnow FAA FRS is Executive Director of the Garvan Institute of Medical Research, holds The Bill and Patricia Ritchie Foundation Chair as Head of the Immunogenomics Laboratory at Garvan, and is Professor and Director of the Cellular Genomics Futures Institute at UNSW Sydney. Chris trained in veterinary medicine and surgery, immunochemistry, and immunology at the University of Sydney and in DNA technology and molecular immunology at Stanford University. Chris is internationally recognised for discovering and establishing the concept of sequential tolerance checkpoints to prevent the immune system attacking “self” while fighting off “foreign” infections, laying the scientific foundation for the recent success of checkpoint inhibitor drugs to activate immune destruction of “self” cancer cells. He pioneered the use of mammalian genome sequencing to reveal how the body’s phenotype results from its’ genotype – “phenomics”. Most recently his team have used single cell genomics to discover that rogue immune cells bypass tolerance checkpoints to cause autoimmune disease through mutation pathways that also cause lymphoma and leukemia. Chris’ many awards include the AAI Pharmingen Award, Gottschalk Medal, Health Minister’s Prize, Centenary Medal, Ramaciotti Medal, GSK Award for Research Excellence, William E. Paul Award, Fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, Fellow of the Royal Society, and Member of the US National Academy of Sciences.