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The Institute is the leading group focused on infectious diseases, immunology and cancer in Australia and the region. Its major areas of research and public health activities are infectious diseases of global significance such as HIV, hepatitis, measles, malaria, tuberculosis and avian influenza, and cancers such as breast, ovarian and prostate cancer.
The key focus of the Institute is to make a sustainable difference to people’s health in Australia and around the world by developing practical outcomes.
The Burnet Institute was founded in 1986 and named in honour of the highly acclaimed Australian scientist and Nobel Laureate Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet. The Institute’s work integrates basic and applied laboratory research with field research and the design, implementation and evaluation of public health programs.
Much of the work of Burnet assists socially marginalized groups by tackling tough problems: HIV and AIDS, sexually transmitted infections, hepatitis, and illicit drug use. Laboratory research is motivated and informed by the direct experience of our people on the streets and in communities in developing and developed nations.
The Burnet Institute is the only medical research institute to be accredited for funding by AusAID, the Australian Federal Government’s overseas development agency, and in 1998, the Institute were accorded Collaborating Centre status by the United Nations Program on AIDS (UNAIDS) - one of just 12 such centres in the world. In addition, the Institute is also one of two WHO Regional HIV Drug Resistance Laboratories for the Asia-Pacific region.
The Burnet Institute also has an important educational role, and provides training in research and in public health at the undergraduate and postgraduate level through its associations with the University of Melbourne, Monash University, RMIT University, La Trobe University and University Udayana in Indonesia.
On 1 January 2006, the Burnet Institute officially merged with the Austin Research Institute, creating a new ‘super-institute’ under the continued name of the Macfarlane Burnet Institute for Medical Research and Public Health (Burnet Institute).
The merger has combined the strengths of both the Burnet and Austin Research Institutes, increasing its research and public health capability and broadening the scope of its activities. The merger has positioned the Burnet Institute as one of the largest medical research and public health institutes in Australia.