Elizabeth Simpson | |
|---|---|
| Born | London, England |
| Nationality | British |
| Alma mater | University of Cambridge |
| Awards | OBE FRS FMedSci |
| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Imperial College London |
Elizabeth Simpson OBE FRS FMedSci is a British biologist. She is the Emeritus Professor of Transplantation Biology at Imperial College London. Simpson is particularly known for her elucidation of the nature of male-associated minor transplantation antigens, and their roles in the generation of immunological tolerance, graft versus host disease, and transplant rejection. [1]
Elizabeth Simpson was born in London, England. [2] She obtained both her Bachelor's and Master's of Veterinary Medicine from the University of Cambridge. Immediately following her completion of education, she began working at a private practice in NB, Canada as a veterinary surgeon for two years. She then worked as a virologist in Ottawa for the Department of Health and Welfare. In 1966, she returned to Cambridge and served as an assistant lecturer in animal pathology for three years.
Simpson subsequently moved to Delhi, India and became a WHO consultant immunologist at the National Institute of Communicable Diseases. During her work in Delhi, India, she simultaneously worked for the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) in London, England as a research scientist. [2] In the years following her work in India and for the NIMR, she has worked for several institutes, including her work as the head of the Transplant Biology Group at both the Medical Research Council's Clinical Research Centre in Harrow and the Clinical Sciences Centre at the Hammersmith Hospital. In addition, Simpson has done work for the National Cancer Institute, was the Deputy Director of the Clinical Sciences Centre at Imperial College, London, and continues to spend many summers at the Jax Laboratory in Maine. Although Simpson is a British Biologist, she has made significant contributions to her field of work in both the United States and in England. She is currently working as the Emeritus Professor of Transplant Biology at Imperial College, London, and has held this position since 2004. [3]
Simpson specializes in cellular immunology. [2] She began her work with Peter Medawar in the late 1960's. Alongside him, she studied the immunology of graft rejection by observing the antigens found on grafts from male mice. With their research on the mice, Simpson and Medawar were able to discover the role of the genes found on the Y chromosome in rejection. [4] She has made contributions to immunology by observing the interactions between T cells and Y chromosome antigens. Her studies in the area of minor histocompatibility antigens showed that male-specific cytotoxic T cells recognize self-MHC and products of genes on the Y chromosome. She carried out the molecular identification of the HY genes and the peptide epitopes they encode. Simpson's work has led to an increased understanding of immunological tolerance and graft acceptance/rejection, leading organ transplantation to become safer and more successful for patients. [4] She is now using information to address fundamental questions, such as T cell-repertoire selection and immunodominance, and to devise models for investigating the modulation of in vivo haematopoietic stem cells. [2]
 | This section of a biography of a living person does not include any references or sources .(December 2022) |
Immunology is a branch of biology and medicine that covers the study of immune systems in all organisms.
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.
Sir Peter Brian Medawar was a Brazilian-British biologist and writer, whose works on graft rejection and the discovery of acquired immune tolerance have been fundamental to the medical practice of tissue and organ transplants. For his scientific works, he is regarded as the "father of transplantation". He is remembered for his wit both in person and in popular writings. Richard Dawkins referred to him as "the wittiest of all scientific writers"; Stephen Jay Gould as "the cleverest man I have ever known".
(Nicholas) Avrion Mitchison was a British zoologist and immunologist.
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.
X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (X-SCID) is an immunodeficiency disorder in which the body produces very few T cells and NK cells.
Sir Michael Francis Addison Woodruff, was an English surgeon and scientist principally remembered for his research into organ transplantation. Though born in London, Woodruff spent his youth in Australia, where he earned degrees in electrical engineering and medicine. Having completed his studies shortly after the outbreak of World War II, he joined the Australian Army Medical Corps, but was soon captured by Japanese forces and imprisoned in the Changi Prison Camp. While there, he devised an ingenious method of extracting nutrients from agricultural wastes to prevent malnutrition among his fellow POWs.
Immune tolerance, also known as immunological tolerance or immunotolerance, refers to the immune system's state of unresponsiveness to substances or tissues that would otherwise trigger an immune response. It arises from prior exposure to a specific antigen and contrasts the immune system's conventional role in eliminating foreign antigens. Depending on the site of induction, tolerance is categorized as either central tolerance, occurring in the thymus and bone marrow, or peripheral tolerance, taking place in other tissues and lymph nodes. Although the mechanisms establishing central and peripheral tolerance differ, their outcomes are analogous, ensuring immune system modulation.
Jan Klein was a Czech–American immunologist.
Rupert Everett Billingham FRS was a British biologist who did significant research in the fields of reproductive immunology and organ transplantation. "He made numerous fundamental contributions to our modern knowledge of the mechanisms of graft rejection and how to prevent it, and he analysed some of the mechanisms responsible for the survival of the mammalian foetus in an immunologically hostile environment".
Minor histocompatibility antigen are peptides presented on the cellular surface of donated organs that are known to give an immunological response in some organ transplants. They cause problems of rejection less frequently than those of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Minor histocompatibility antigens (MiHAs) are diverse, short segments of proteins and are referred to as peptides. These peptides are normally around 9-12 amino acids in length and are bound to both the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I and class II proteins. Peptide sequences can differ among individuals and these differences arise from SNPs in the coding region of genes, gene deletions, frameshift mutations, or insertions. About a third of the characterized MiHAs come from the Y chromosome. Prior to becoming a short peptide sequence, the proteins expressed by these polymorphic or diverse genes need to be digested in the proteasome into shorter peptides. These endogenous or self peptides are then transported into the endoplasmic reticulum with a peptide transporter pump called TAP where they encounter and bind to the MHC class I molecule. This contrasts with MHC class II molecules's antigens which are peptides derived from phagocytosis/endocytosis and molecular degradation of non-self entities' proteins, usually by antigen-presenting cells. MiHA antigens are either ubiquitously expressed in most tissue like skin and intestines or restrictively expressed in the immune cells.
Certain sites of the mammalian body have immune privilege, meaning they are able to tolerate the introduction of antigens without eliciting an inflammatory immune response. Tissue grafts are normally recognised as foreign antigens by the body and attacked by the immune system. However, in immune privileged sites, tissue grafts can survive for extended periods of time without rejection occurring. Immunologically privileged sites include:
The Sir William Dunn School of Pathology is a department within the University of Oxford. Its research programme includes the cellular and molecular biology of pathogens, the immune response, cancer and cardiovascular disease. It teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in the medical sciences.
Human leukocyte antigens (HLA) began as a list of antigens identified as a result of transplant rejection. The antigens were initially identified by categorizing and performing massive statistical analyses on interactions between blood types. This process is based upon the principle of serotypes. HLA are not typical antigens, like those found on surface of infectious agents. HLAs are alloantigens, they vary from individual to individual as a result of genetic differences. An organ called the thymus is responsible for ensuring that any T-cells that attack self proteins are not allowed to live. In essence, every individual's immune system is tuned to the specific set of HLA and self proteins produced by that individual; where this goes awry is when tissues are transferred to another person. Since individuals almost always have different "banks" of HLAs, the immune system of the recipient recognizes the transplanted tissue as non-self and destroys the foreign tissue, leading to transplant rejection. It was through the realization of this that HLAs were discovered.
Delphine Mary Vera Parrott FRSE was a British endocrinologist, immunologist, and academic. She did research at the National Institute for Medical Research in the 1950s and the Imperial Cancer Research Fund in the 1960s.
Terence Howard Rabbitts FRS FMedSci is currently Professor of Molecular Immunology at the Institute of Cancer Research, London.
Ray David Owen was a teacher and scientist whose discovery of unusual, “mixed,” red blood cell types in cattle twins in 1945 launched the fields of modern immunology and organ transplantation. Owen's 1945 findings were published in the journal Science. This observation demonstrated that self was “learned” by the immune system during development and paved the way for research involving induction of immune tolerance and early tissue grafting. When Frank Macfarlane Burnet and Sir Peter Brian Medawar were awarded their 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the discovery of acquired immunological tolerance, Owen was not mentioned in the prize. However, in a letter to Owen, Medawar stated that he believed Owen should have also been included in the prize. Owen also led the successful effort to admit women as California Institute of Technology undergraduates.
ProfessorKeryn Anne Williams is an Australian medical scientist who works in the field of ophthalmology. She was a Principal Research Fellow in the School of Medicine at Flinders University. Her research interests include clinical and experimental corneal transplantation, ocular inflammation, ocular immunology and eye banking.
The Compatibility Gene is a 2013 book about the discovery of the mechanism of compatibility in the human immune system by the English professor of immunology, Daniel M. Davis. It describes the history of immunology with the discovery of the principle of graft rejection by Peter Medawar in the 1950s, and the way the body distinguishes self from not-self via natural killer cells. The compatibility mechanism contributes also to the success of pregnancy by helping the placenta to form, and may play a role in mate selection.
Maria Grazia Roncarolo is an Italian pediatrician who is currently George D. Smith Professor in Stem Cell and Regenerative Medicine and Professor of Medicine at Stanford University. She is also the Director of the Stanford Institute of Stem Cell Biology and Regenerative Medicine along with Irving Weissman and Michael Longaker and the Director for Center for Definitive and Curative Medicine at Stanford.
| International | |
|---|---|
| Academics | |
