Alain Townsend

Alain Robert Michael Townsend is an immunologist from Oxford University ( United Kingdom ).

Life

Townsend graduated from St Mary's Hospital Medical School , part of Imperial College London , with a medical degree in 1977 . He then began postgraduate studies at the National Institute for Medical Research in Mill Hill , London . In 1984 he went to the Institute of Molecular Medicine at Oxford University , which was later renamed the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine . In 1992 Townsend received a professorship in molecular immunology at Oxford. Townsend also conducted research for the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) from 1993 to 1998 . He also worked as an internist for the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford .

Act

Townsend could explain how viral antigens to peptides decomposed and together with class I structures of the major histocompatibility complex on the surface of antigen presenting cells to T-lymphocytes are presented. In addition, he contributed to the discovery of peptide transporters in the endoplasmic reticulum . Overall, Townsend's work is fundamental to understanding the processes involved in infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases .

More recent work deals with ferroportin and the hereditary hemochromatosis protein (HFE), which is very similar to the main histocompatibility complex, and their role in iron metabolism , in the development of hemochromatosis, and their interactions with the Nef protein of the HI virus .

Awards (selection)

• 1989 William B. Coley Award
• 1992 Member (Fellow) of the Royal Society
• 1992 Louis Jeantet Prize
• 2000 Gairdner Foundation International Award (together with Emil R. Unanue )

Web links

• Alain Townsend profile the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine (WIMM) of the University of Oxford (ox.ac.uk); Retrieved August 8, 2012
• Prof Alain R Townsend FRS FRCP - Radcliffe Department of Medicine, University of Oxford. In: rdm.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved February 7, 2016 . 

Individual evidence

1. ^ Alain R. Townsend, FRCP, FRS - HHMI.org. In: hhmi.org. Retrieved February 7, 2016 . 
2. ^ William B. Coley Award. In: cancerresearch.org. Retrieved January 24, 2016 . 
3. ^ Fellows of the Royal Society (royalsociety.org); Retrieved July 2, 2011
4. ^ Docteur Alain Townsend. In: jeantet.ch. Retrieved August 22, 2018 (French). 
5. ^ Alain RM Townsend - Gairdner Foundation. In: gairdner.org. Accessed March 28, 2018 (English).