Professor Nicola is co-head of the Division of Cancer and Haematology at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne. He obtained his PhD as a protein chemist in the Biochemistry Department at Melbourne University and for the last 36 years has studied the molecular control of blood cell formation and function by cytokine signalling. He and his colleagues purified the cytokine G-CSF in 1983, cloned one of the first cytokine receptors (that for GM-CSF) in 1989 and discovered a novel family of negative regulators of cytokine signalling (the SOCS proteins) in 1997. His academic honours include election to the Australian Academy of Science, the Gottschalk Medal of the Australian Academy of Science, the Wellcome Medal, the Pharmacia-LKB Medal, the AMGEN Australia prize and Officer of the Order of Australia. His current interests are in mechanism of action studies of signalling molecules and their roles in health and disease.