Brief Curriculum Vitae: Baxter is a medical graduate who completed a PhD in immunogenetics at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute under the supervision of Tom Mandel. He has worked as a Research Fellow at Harvard Medical School and at Cambridge University, where he was a Supervisor in Pathology for Trinity College and was funded by the Australian National Health and Medical Research Council on a CJ Martin Fellowship. He established the Autoimmunity Research Group at the Centenary Institute, where he worked for nine years before taking up his current appointment as Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Cell Biology at the Comparative Genomics Centre of the James Cook University. His work is funded by the NHMRC.

Significant scientific achievements include:

•    Characterisation of low-incidence diabetes-prone NOD/Wehi mice
•    Identification of spontaneous haemolytic anaemia in NOD mice
•    Discovery, development and characterisation of the BCG-induced model of lupus
•    Mapping of Idd11 (with Morahan)
•    Identification of deficit in NKT cells in NOD mice (with Godfrey)
•    Demonstration of causative role of NKT cell deficit in type 1 diabetes in NOD mice
•    Elucidation of mechanism of protection from diabetes by NKT cells (with Godfrey)
•    Mapping of gastritis genes Gasa1, Gasa2, Gasa3 and Gasa4 (with van Driel and Silveira)
•    Production of congenic mice for Gasa1 and Gasa2 (with van Driel).
•    Mapping of lupus genes Bah1, Bah2, Bana1, Bana2, Bana3, Babs1 and Babs2.
•    Mapping of the NKT cell control genes Nkt1 and Nkt2.
•    Production of congenic mice for Nkt1 and Nkt2.
•    Production of NOD mice congenic for H2, Hc and Nkrp1.

•    A popular science book about immunology (Germ Warfare: Breakthroughs in Immunology) published by Allen and Unwin ISBN 1 86508 070 5.
•    Radio broadcasts about immunology (Ockham's Razor) on Radio National
•    International patents submitted covering a preventative treatment for type 1 diabetes based on a BCG subfraction.
•    Consultant immunologist in patent defences.

Baxter is currently President of the Australasian Society for Immunology, on the editorial boards of Journal of Immunology, Immunology and Cell Biology and The Review of Diabetic Studies. and is a reviewer for several journals including Nature Medicine, Science, The Lancet, Diabetologia, Autoimmunity, and the Journal of Immunology. He has sat on a number of NHMRC grant review panels, has performed program reviews for the MRC (UK) and JDRF and has chaired a Special Emphasis Program review panel for the NIH (USA).

LINKS:

• Medical Genomics Group home page
• Medical Genomics Group Scientific Report
• Comparative Genomics Centre home page
• James Cook University home page