Peter C. DohertyBorn 15 Oct 1940.Australian immunologist and pathologist who, with Swiss-born Rolf Zinkernagel, shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1996 for their project at the John Curtin School of Medical Research in Canberra, Australia (1973-5). Using mice, they studied how the immune system's T-lymphocytes, recognize virus-infected cells from healthy cells. The "killer T-cells," in a test tube killed cells infected by a virus, and worked only against a specific virus in a specific mouse and could not be transferred to a different animal. Such discoveries have a wide impact on the study of diseases such as rheumatic conditions, multiple sclerosis and diabetes. He was the seventh Australian Nobelist, and the first who was a veterinarian. |
