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Immunology is a branch of biology and medicine that covers the study of immune systems in all organisms.
The thymus is a specialized primary lymphoid organ of the immune system. Within the thymus, thymus cell lymphocytes or T cells mature. T cells are critical to the adaptive immune system, where the body adapts to specific foreign invaders. The thymus is located in the upper front part of the chest, in the anterior superior mediastinum, behind the sternum, and in front of the heart. It is made up of two lobes, each consisting of a central medulla and an outer cortex, surrounded by a capsule.
T cells are one of the important types of white blood cells of the immune system and play a central role in the adaptive immune response. T cells can be distinguished from other lymphocytes by the presence of a T-cell receptor (TCR) on their cell surface.
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".
Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, usually known as Macfarlane or Mac Burnet, was an Australian virologist known for his contributions to immunology. He won a Nobel Prize in 1960 for predicting acquired immune tolerance and he developed the theory of clonal selection.
Graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) is a syndrome, characterized by inflammation in different organs. GvHD is commonly associated with bone marrow transplants and stem cell transplants.
WEHI, previously known as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, and as the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, is Australia's oldest medical research institute. Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, who won the Nobel Prize in 1960 for his work in immunology, was director from 1944 to 1965. Burnet developed the ideas of clonal selection and acquired immune tolerance. Later, Professor Donald Metcalf discovered and characterised colony-stimulating factors. As of 2015, the institute hosted more than 750 researchers who work to understand, prevent and treat diseases including blood, breast and ovarian cancers; inflammatory diseases (autoimmunity) such as rheumatoid arthritis, type 1 diabetes and coeliac disease; and infectious diseases such as malaria, HIV and hepatitis B and C.
In immunology, clonal selection theory explains the functions of cells of the immune system (lymphocytes) in response to specific antigens invading the body. The concept was introduced by Australian doctor Frank Macfarlane Burnet in 1957, in an attempt to explain the great diversity of antibodies formed during initiation of the immune response. The theory has become the widely accepted model for how the human immune system responds to infection and how certain types of B and T lymphocytes are selected for destruction of specific antigens.
In immunology, central tolerance is the process of eliminating any developing T or B lymphocytes that are autoreactive, i.e. reactive to the body itself. Through elimination of autoreactive lymphocytes, tolerance ensures that the immune system does not attack self peptides. Lymphocyte maturation occurs in primary lymphoid organs such as the bone marrow and the thymus. In mammals, B cells mature in the bone marrow and T cells mature in the thymus.
X-linked severe combined immunodeficiency (X-SCID) is an immunodeficiency disorder in which the body produces very few T cells and NK cells.
Immune tolerance, or immunological tolerance, or immunotolerance, is a state of unresponsiveness of the immune system to substances or tissue that would otherwise have the capacity to elicit an immune response in a given organism. It is induced by prior exposure to that specific antigen and contrasts with conventional immune-mediated elimination of foreign antigens. Tolerance is classified into central tolerance or peripheral tolerance depending on where the state is originally induced—in the thymus and bone marrow (central) or in other tissues and lymph nodes (peripheral). The mechanisms by which these forms of tolerance are established are distinct, but the resulting effect is similar.
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".
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.
Thymic involution is the shrinking (involution) of the thymus with age, resulting in changes in the architecture of the thymus and a decrease in tissue mass. Thymus involution is one of the major characteristics of vertebrate immunology, and occurs in almost all vertebrates, from birds, teleosts, amphibians to reptiles, though the thymi of a few species of sharks are known not to involute. This process is genetically regulated, with the nucleic material responsible being an example of a conserved sequence — one maintained through natural selection since it arose in a common ancestor of all species now exhibiting it, via a phenomenon known to bioinformaticists as an orthologic sequence homology.
Max Dale Cooper, is an American immunologist and a professor at the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine and the Emory Vaccine Center of Emory University School of Medicine. He is known for characterizing T cells and B cells.
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.
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.
Immunology & Cell Biology is an academic journal of the Australian and New Zealand Society for Immunology covering basic immunology research. The journal has a focus on cellular immunology, innate and adaptive immunity, immune responses to pathogens, tumour immunology, immunopathology, immunotherapy, immunogenetics and immunological studies in humans and model organisms. The journal was founded in 1924 as the Australian Journal of Experimental Biology and Medical Science, and was converted in 1987 to Immunology and Cell Biology, making it one of the oldest speciality immunology journals in existence. Major historical contributions including publication by Donald Metcalf of the strategy for identifying colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) and the development of the clonal selection theory by Frank Macfarlane Burnet, in a series of more than 90 publications in the 1970s.
Infectious tolerance is a term referring to a phenomenon where a tolerance-inducing state is transferred from one cell population to another. It can be induced in many ways; although it is often artificially induced, it is a natural in vivo process. A number of research deal with the development of a strategy utilizing this phenomenon in transplantation immunology. The goal is to achieve long-term tolerance of the transplant through short-term therapy.
References
- 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Miller, Jacques (2005). "A scientific odyssey: unravelling the secrets of the thymus". The Medical Journal of Australia. 183 (11/12): 582–584. doi:10.5694/j.1326-5377.2005.tb00041.x. PMID 16336136. S2CID 40679566.
- ↑ Mellor, Lise (2008). "Miller, Jacques F A P". Faculty of Medicine Online Museum and Archive. The University of Sydney. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
- ↑ Miller, Jacques F. A. P. (July 2011). "The golden anniversary of the thymus". Nature Reviews Immunology. 11 (7): 489–495. doi:10.1038/nri2993. PMID 21617694. S2CID 21191923(Full text requires subscriber login or payment)
{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: postscript (link) - 1 2 Miller, Jacques; Slattery, Robyn (19 September 2011). "Celebrating a scientific breakthrough". Health Report (Interview: audio). Interviewed by Dr Norman Swan. Australia: ABC Radio National . Retrieved 12 February 2012.
- ↑ Miller, JF (1963). "Effect of thymectomy on the induction of skin tumours by 3,4-benzopyrene". Nature. 199 (4896): 920–2. Bibcode:1963Natur.199..920M. doi:10.1038/199920a0. PMID 14079914. S2CID 39669302.
- ↑ "Jacques Miller: Authentic Australian Art". Jacques Miller. 2008. Archived from the original on 2 April 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
- ↑ "Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lecture". Australian Academy of Science. Retrieved 22 February 2017.
- ↑ Officer of the Order of Australia, 26 January 1981, It's an Honour
- ↑ "The Medawar Prize: 1990". The Transplantation Society Awards. The Transplantation Society. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
- ↑ Centenary Medal Archived 31 January 2018 at the Wayback Machine , 1 January 2001, It's an Honour
- ↑ "Professor Jacques Miller: The Modern 'Father' of Immunology". 2003 Prime Minister's Prize for Science. Department of Industry, Innovation, Science, Research and Tertiary Education. Archived from the original on 29 February 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2012.
- ↑ Companion of the Order of Australia (AC), 9 June 2003, It's an Honour
- ↑ 2018 Japan Prize Honors Pioneers in Medical Science and Energy, 30 January 2018, Japan Prize Awards
- ↑ Albert Lasker Award 2019
