In immunology, an antigen (Ag) is a molecule, moiety, foreign particulate matter, or an allergen, such as pollen, that can bind to a specific antibody or T-cell receptor. The presence of antigens in the body may trigger an immune response.
The immune system is a network of biological processes that protects an organism from diseases. It detects and responds to a wide variety of pathogens, from viruses to parasitic worms, as well as cancer cells and objects such as wood splinters, distinguishing them from the organism's own healthy tissue. Many species have two major subsystems of the immune system. The innate immune system provides a preconfigured response to broad groups of situations and stimuli. The adaptive immune system provides a tailored response to each stimulus by learning to recognize molecules it has previously encountered. Both use molecules and cells to perform their functions.
Histocompatibility, or tissue compatibility, is the property of having the same, or sufficiently similar, alleles of a set of genes called human leukocyte antigens (HLA), or major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Each individual expresses many unique HLA proteins on the surface of their cells, which signal to the immune system whether a cell is part of the self or an invading organism. T cells recognize foreign HLA molecules and trigger an immune response to destroy the foreign cells. Histocompatibility testing is most relevant for topics related to whole organ, tissue, or stem cell transplants, where the similarity or difference between the donor's HLA alleles and the recipient's triggers the immune system to reject the transplant. The wide variety of potential HLA alleles lead to unique combinations in individuals and make matching difficult.
Rolf Martin Zinkernagel is a professor of experimental immunology at the University of Zurich. Along with Peter C. Doherty, he shared the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of how the immune system recognizes virus-infected cells.
Jacques Francis Albert Pierre Miller AC FRS FAA is a French-Australian research scientist. He is known for having discovered the function of the thymus and for the identification, in mammalian species of the two major subsets of lymphocytes and their function.
Brett John Mason is a former Australian politician and a Liberal/Liberal National of Queensland member of the Australian Senate from 1 July 1999 to 15 April 2015, representing the state of Queensland. Mason was the Australian Ambassador to the Netherlands from September 2015 to August 2018.
Kenneth Stanley Inglis, was an Australian historian.
William Leonard Gammage is an Australian academic historian, adjunct professor and senior research fellow at the Humanities Research Centre of the Australian National University (ANU). Gammage was born in Orange, New South Wales, went to Wagga Wagga High School and then to ANU. He was on the faculty of the University of Papua New Guinea and the University of Adelaide. He is a fellow of the Australian Academy of Social Sciences and deputy chair of the National Museum of Australia.
Gordon Leslie Ada AO, FAA was an Australian biochemist best known for his seminal contributions to virology and immunology and his long leadership of the Department of Microbiology at the John Curtin School of Medical Research at the Australian National University, where Peter C. Doherty and Rolf Zinkernagel performed their Nobel winning research in his department. Both Zinkernagel and Doherty held him in high regard, and he was invited by them to attend the Nobel award ceremony and dinner in Stockholm.
The John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR) is an Australian multidisciplinary translational medical research institute and postgraduate education centre that forms part of the Australian National University (ANU) in Canberra. The school was founded in 1948 as a result of the vision of Nobel Laureate Sir Howard Florey and was named in honour of Australia's World War II Prime Minister John Curtin, who had died in office a few years earlier.
Emil Raphael Unanue was a Cuban-American immunologist and Paul & Ellen Lacy Professor Emeritus at Washington University School of Medicine. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the Institute of Medicine. He previously served as chair of the National Academy of Sciences Section of Microbiology and Immunology.
The Ian Constable Lecture is an annual lecture given in Perth, Western Australia.
Ralph Marvin Steinman was a Canadian physician and medical researcher at Rockefeller University, who in 1973 discovered and named dendritic cells while working as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Zanvil A. Cohn, also at Rockefeller University. Steinman was one of the recipients of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The Australian College of Educators (ACE) is an Australian national professional association for educators. Membership is open to all professional educators working in the early childhood, school, and tertiary education sectors, as well as to education researchers and managers. The College advocates for its members in seeking improvements in the status of the education profession.
Gabrielle T. Belz is an Australian molecular immunologist and viral immunologist. She is a faculty member of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, within the Molecular Immunology division. Belz has made important contributions to the understanding of immune system function, especially in relation to the molecular and cellular signalling pathways of immune response to viruses. Her research has focused on understanding the signals that drive the initial development of protective immunity against pathogen infections, such as influenza and herpes viruses. This includes research into how cytotoxic T cells recognise and remove virally-infected cells from the body following infection. Research into the description of the specific factors and response during infection will contribute towards the long-term development of vaccines for infectious disease, and the development of better treatments for autoimmune diseases.
Margaret Sabine (1928–2011) was the pioneering virologist for Australian veterinary schools. She conducted studies on viruses in cats and horses, with her characterisation of different equine viruses being her most significant scientific contribution. Other achievements include becoming head of the department of veterinary pathology and bacteriology, being chairwoman of the NSW Animal Welfare Advisory Council, an honorary Veterinary Science degree at the University of Sydney, and being a co-discoverer of viral interference.
Gene Martin Shearer is an American immunologist who works at the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He first achieved fame for his discovery in 1974 that T lymphocytes recognized chemically modified surface antigens only in the context of self major histocompatibility complex (MHC) encoded molecules, identifying the central feature of antigen recognition by T lymphocytes known as MHC restriction. His discovery of MHC restriction using chemically modified surface antigens was simultaneous with the discovery of MHC restricted T lymphocyte recognition of virus infected cells by Rolf Zinkernagel and Peter Doherty, who received the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
The Buntine Oration is a biennial invited presentation and speech made at the conference of the Australian College of Educators (ACE). It was established in 1960 by the four children of Dr Walter Murray Buntine who survived him – Dr R. M. Buntine, Dr M. A. Buntine, Dr R. D. Buntine, and Mrs. D. M. G. Wilson – in his memory. The inaugural oration was given by Peter Karmel in 1962 at the third annual ACE conference and the most recent was in 2008.
Laura K. Mackay is an internationally-recognised immunologist, Professor of Immunology at the University of Melbourne and a Laboratory Head at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity.
