Sir Frank Macfarlane BurnetBorn 3 Sep 1899; died 31 Aug 1985 at age 85. Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet was an Australian physician, virologist, and recipient, with Sir Peter Medawar, of the 1960 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of acquired immunological tolerance to tissue transplants. He studied the nature of antibody formation and immune processes and developed the notion of immunological tolerance to explain why humans do not form antibodies to their own bodily constituents. He also wrote about how mistakes of the immune system might cause obscure forms of blood, liver and kidney disease. He made pioneering use of fertile hen's eggs as hosts for virus multiplication. The concepts he developed are part of the basis for current theories about viruses as cancer-causing agents. |
