[Music plays and images move through to show glass panels on the outside of a building, Professor Ian Frazer in an office talking to the camera, and then glass panels on the outside of the building]
Professor Ian Frazer: The healthy population is a happy and productive population and to keep people healthy you need medical research.
[Music plays and image changes to show a view of the glass panelled building from the street]
[Images move through to show Ian talking to the camera, a group of people sitting watching a presentation, and then Ian having a conversation with the presenter and text appears: Professor Ian Frazer AC, Chair, Australian Medical Research Advisory Board (AMRAB)]
I’m Professor Ian Frazer. My job as chair of the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board, AMRAB is to give advice to government about what the strategy for health and medical research should be and what the priorities should be at any given time.
[Image shows Ian in conversation with the group then image changes to show Ian talking to the camera and the camera zooms out on Ian talking]
The great advantage of having a Medical Research Future Fund with guaranteed funding is that we can look at the big problems in health and try and build new capacity to solve those problems.
[Image changes to show a male pointing at a presentation and then the camera zooms out to show him talking, and then the image changes to show a female in the group talking]
We were charged with consulting widely to find out what the priorities should be in medical research.
[The camera pans over group, and then the image changes to show Ian talking to the camera]
That means consulting with the experts, of course, but also with the community and with governments and we also set up a website so people could put in their suggestions on the web.
[Camera zooms out on Ian talking to the camera]
Basically we did the best we could to consult with absolutely anybody that wanted to talk with us.
[Music plays and image changes to show Ian and a female scientist walking through a busy laboratory and then image changes to show Ian talking to the camera]
Australia values its health and there are many health challenges that face Australia — cancer, diabetes, heart attacks, dementia — and what will really make a difference is if through research we can prevent these diseases.
[Image changes to show Ian and a female scientist in conversation while looking at a manual in a laboratory and then the image changes to show Ian talking to the camera]
And so, there are many parts of the Medical Research Future Fund that are directed in that area but the one that stands out is genomics.
[Music plays and image moves through to show Ian and a female scientist walking through a busy laboratory, and then the image changes to show an indoor garden café]
Genomics is the future of medicine.
[Image changes to show Ian talking to the camera]
At one end of the spectrum we can diagnose young kids with serious genetic diseases quickly.
[Images move through to show Ian and a male scientist working together in a laboratory and looking into a microscope]
In between, we can use genomics to understand how bacteria spread particular diseases.
[Image changes to show Ian talking to the camera, and then the image changes to show a microscope, and then the camera zooms out to show Ian looking into the microscope]
And at the other end of the spectrum we can map out the people who are likely to end up with chronic disease such as Type 2 Diabetes and therefore we can predict how best to prevent them getting that disease.
[Music plays and the image shows Ian and a male scientist in conversation in a laboratory]
[Images move through to show Ian talking to the camera, Ian and a male scientist working together in a laboratory, and then Ian talking to the camera]
Eventually genomics will probably be the road map for health that everybody carries around with them.
[Image changes to show blue liquid being drawn up into a syringe and then being put into test tubes]
Medical research also creates job opportunities.
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It creates potential wealth for the country.
[Image changes to show blue liquid being drawn up into a syringe and then the camera zooms out to show Ian and a male scientist working together in a laboratory]
Innovative research leads to innovative products and innovative products can be sold on a global basis.
[Images move through to show Ian sitting in a café working at a laptop]
We are a small country in a very big world.
[Image changes to show Ian talking to the camera and then the image changes to show Ian smiling at the camera]
We contribute well above our weight in medical research but we recognise that we really need to be doing internationally competitive research and all of the Medical Research Future Fund is focused on this idea of doing world-best research in Australia.
[Music plays and the Coat of Arms and text appears: Australian Government, Department of Health, Medical Research Future Fund]
Professor Ian Frazer AC (Chair of the Australian Medical Research Advisory Board) talks about the Medical Research Future Fund and how it is contributing to Australia's health.