{"id":1898,"date":"2024-11-22T11:00:52","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T00:30:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/alumni-stories\/?p=1898"},"modified":"2024-11-22T11:00:52","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T00:30:52","slug":"tom-gordon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.flinders.edu.au\/alumni-stories\/2024\/11\/22\/tom-gordon\/","title":{"rendered":"Saving lives through fearless research"},"content":{"rendered":"


\nAs an international authority in the medical field of systemic autoimmunity, Professor Tom Gordon (PhD(Med) ’87, DM ’96), Head of Immunology at Flinders Medical Centre and his team have made an outstanding contribution to the advancement of immunological knowledge for humanity through their willingness to go against the grain and research bravely.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Although being a difficult time for society as a whole, the COVID-19 pandemic brought many professions into the spotlight, including Professor Gordon\u2019s research.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were suddenly front and centre, the immunology group here at Flinders, and of course it was a terrible thing, but we were able to make a very significant contribution through our work with the Doherty Institute in Melbourne on measuring blood antibody responses against the virus at a molecular level, and cracking the code of a lethal antibody that caused VITT \u2013 vaccine induced thrombotic thrombocytopenia,\u201d says Professor Gordon.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople that suffer this very rare complication of the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine (and in rare cases naturally) get blood clots, so we uncovered the proteomic sequence of a rogue autoantibody that is the cause.\u201d<\/p>\n

This fundamental genetic observation has excited the immunological community and theoretically may lead to a better understanding of genetic risk factors underlying many autoimmune disorders and possibly cancerous disease.<\/p>\n

\u201cPerhaps it could only have occurred here, at a place like Flinders,\u201d Professor Gordon says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s a peripheral hospital. Although we\u2019re far away from the big institutes of the East Coast, we are still a small group of very well-trained people, all with overseas post-doctoral experience.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe like to come in from a completely different angle and we must take the risks here. Being a small unit, we don’t have the huge amount of consistent funding that you might get at the big universities and research institutes. But boy, we can really have an impact here!\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Gordon has linked up his more than 30 years\u2019 experience and clinical knowledge with another research team at Flinders called the Flinders Proteomics Facility, which is led by Professor Tim Chataway (BSc(Hons) \u201987, PhD(Med) \u201995).<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we did really shook the world because we had taken a completely new approach when looking at these dangerous autoantibodies,\u201d Professor Gordon explains.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo one had ever done this before, most researchers had just looked in a very traditional way, just at the level of a blood antibody. But here, we got down to the molecular fingerprint of the actual blood antibody.\u201d<\/p>\n

This groundbreaking work was published in top rated journals Blood<\/em> and The New England Journal<\/em> of Medicine, accompanied by editorials by two world leading haematologists. The work also attracted several supporting articles in the popular scientific press, including Time <\/em>Magazine (May 2024) and Reuters.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was also highlighted in the Norman Swan Health report and across the world, so I suppose that was our crowning achievement,\u201d Professor Gordon says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I could not have done this anywhere but Flinders \u2013 I was very fortunate.<\/p>\n

\u201cFlinders gave me some very strong mentors, notably Emeritus Professor Peter Roberts-Thomson AM, Dr Jing Jing Wang and Professor James McCluskey AO.\u201d<\/p>\n

Professor Gordon is a strong advocate of bench-to-bedside research, utilising the rare opportunity Flinders provides for up-and-coming physician-scientists to take the lesson out of the textbook and see the real-world practice firsthand on the hospital floor.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe call it translational research as well,\u201d says Professor Gordon.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is something that the founding fathers of Flinders setup 50 years ago and we are indebted to those pioneers because they were able to build an environment where we could see our patients and we could do very basic scientific discovery work.<\/p>\n

\u201cResearchers from around the globe visit our location and are in awe of what we have managed to create.\u201d<\/p>\n

Although his recent discovery has garnered a lot of attention, over the last 35 years, Professor Gordon has made many other substantial contributions in his field, including the serological characterisation of Sjogren\u2019s Syndrome, the concept of \u2018epitope spreading\u2019, the discovery of functional autoantibodies in narcolepsy, the development of Quality Assurance Programs in the routine diagnostic immunology laboratory and many other notable achievements.<\/p>\n

He has also received many awards and accolades for his work, attracting more than 7230 citations. He has supervised more than 15 higher degree students, together with many rheumatological and immunological registrars. So, after reaching such great heights, is Professor Gordon ready to hang up the lab coat?<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m absolutely not giving up yet!\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople suggest, \u2018oh, you know, you’re 70 years old now, perhaps you should retire\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut strangely enough, we’re working at our absolute peak now with a superb team. There\u2019s still so much more to do!\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Professor Tom Gordon was awarded a 2024 Distinguished Alumni Award from Flinders University for his distinguished leadership, innovation and research in the field of human autoimmunity.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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