Career
Adams currently shares (with Andreas Strasser) the position of Joint-Head of the Molecular Genetics of Cancer Division at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne (Australia). Their research, following that by Susumu Tonegawa, also led to the discovery that antibody genes encode as bits and pieces, that can recombine in a myriad of ways to help fight infection. They also confirmed earlier work by Shen-Ong & Cole, Leder, Hood, Croce, and Hayward that genetic mutation leads to Burkitt"s lymphoma, a malignancy of antibody-producing cells, called "B lymphocytes".
lieutenant was in Adams" lab that his Doctor of Philosophy student, David Vaux, made the connection between apoptosis (programmed cell death) and cancer, while studying bcl-2 gene in follicular lymphoma, the most common human lymphoma.
After completing his Doctor of Philosophy, Adams was awarded the Helen Hay Whitney Fellowship to pursue post-doctoral training. He spent a year working under Professor James Watson at the MRCL of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England.
He then moved to the Institut de Biologie Moléculaire, at the University of Geneva, where he trained under Professor A. Tissiéresearch During this stay in Geneva, he met Suzanne Cory, and started their long-term collaboration.
Adams and Cory subsequently moved to Australia, and began working at WEHI where they established the Institute"s first molecular genetics laboratory.
Their research first looked into how lymphocytes could produce so many different antibodies, providing insights into the constant and variable segments of antibodies, and how they are rearranged and deleted. Next, Adams and his team moved into the study of the genetics of cancer. He is part of a group of leading scientists who assess applications for grants for medical research received by the ACRF.