James Mcdonald: Cervical cancer today is the second most deadly cancer for women across the world. But the groundbreaking research of a Scottish-Australian cancer researcher Dr Ian Frazer may change things.

In August last year, some Australian girls were among the first to receive the vaccine for the cervical cancer virus from Dr Frazer. And this is how Dr Frazer laid the groundwork for the first-of-its-kind vaccine.

It began 15 years ago with a key partnership, when he met the late Dr Jian Zhou, a Chinese research scientist. The two combined their expertise about the human pappiloma virus, or HPV, a group of viruses that causes most types of cervical cancer.

"We wanted to understand how the virus worked, so we set out to build a virus using the common DNA technology. One thing led to another as we say, and we ended up with the shell of the virus which was the basis of the vaccine," says Dr Frazer.

Today, the vaccine is sold under the brand name Gardasil. It is given in three doses and it has been approved around the world.

However there is a controversy regarding the vaccine. HPV is sexually transmitted, and critics of the vaccine say vaccinating girls as young as nine promotes promiscuity among teens.

The claim offends cancer researcher Nigel Mcmillan as a scientist and as a father.

"I think the argument is intellectually corrupt. Do seatbelts encourage people to speed?" argues Mcmillan.

Around the world more than 250 thousand women die each year from cervical cancer. Pap testing in developed countries has helped reduce the number of deaths.

"In the developing world, there are no pap smears and, indeed, there are no treatments available for cervical cancer in the developing world either, so if you get the disease, you die," says Dr Frazer.

Dr Frazer is now working with the Gates Foundation, which is helping fund the expensive vaccine in places it is needed most.

And back in the lab, Dr Frazer's researchers are following in his footsteps, developing new vaccines.