Papers of Dr Robert Freeman: Malaria Vaccine Research at Wellcome Trust Research Laboratories, Beckenham, Kent

The collection comprises material relating to Dr Robert Freeman's research on malaria vaccines whilst a Senior Scientist at the Wellcome Trust Research Laboratories in Beckenham, Kent, between 1978 and 1986.

It includes correspondence, laboratory and method notes, off-prints, methods book and method notes, 35mm lecture slides and autoradiographs.

His work was largely focused on producing a surface antigen of Plasmodium Falciparum merozoites.

c.1954-1986

3 boxes

No overall order was present, therefore the collecion has been arranged by the following sections:

CV

Correponsdence

Laboratory Notes

Patents

Meetings

Offprints and Articles

Autoradiographs

Images

Where papers have been stored together, the original order has been maintained.

Presented to the library at Wellcome Collection by Mrs Suzanne Freeman, 24/07/2014, in association with and on behalf of R R Freeman's mother, Mrs Effie Freeman.

Robert Rowe Freeman was born in 1951 in Adelaide, Australia. He was educated at the Prince Alfred College, Adelaide. Following this he studied Biochemistry and Virology at The Flinders University of South Australia. In the 1970s, his wife Suzanne fell ill with malaria and Freeman subsequently became interested in working in this field.

In 1974 he began working with Chris Parish in the Department of Microbiology at the John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University in Caberra. It was here in 1978 that he completed his PhD “Malaria Infections in Laboratory Mice.”

In 1981, Freeman was asked to join the Wellcome Foundation as a Senior Scientist alongside Anthony A. Holder to work on malaria vaccines. He was employed by George Cross who oversaw the development of the Department of Molecular Biology at The Wellcome Research Laboratories in Kent. Freeman initially began working on Plasmodium Yoelii in lab grown mice. He then moved on to working on Plasmodium Falciparum.

In 1981, Freeman and Holder demonstrated that a single protein could be used to vaccinate against blood-stage malaria, a key milestone in Freeman’s career. In the same year, Freeman was appointed joint leader of the Malaria Immunity Programme.

In 1984, Freeman and Holder published a joint paper titled ‘The 3 Major Antigens on the Surface of Plasmodium-Falciparum Merozoites are Derived from a Single High Molecular-Weight Precursor’ in the Journal of Experimental Medicine. It was one of the top ten most cited malaria papers between 1984 and 1989.

Freeman struggled with depression throughout his career. Freeman’s mental health eventually led him to leave Wellcome in 1986 and move back to Australia. He died on 15 December 1999 after taking his own life.

Freeman was a pacifist and an official Conscientious Objector (in Australia) against the war in Vietnam.

In copyright

This collection has been catalogued and is available to library members. Some items have access restrictions which are explained in the item-level catalogue records.

Material previously held by the creator.