Frank Macfarlane Burnet

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Macfarlane Burnet
Macfarlane Burnet in the laboratory

Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet , mostly just Macfarlane Burnet , (born September 3, 1899 in Traralgon , Victoria , Australia , † August 31, 1985 in Melbourne , Australia) was an Australian medic . In 1960 he and Peter Brian Medawar received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for their discovery of acquired immunological tolerance". He developed the clone selection theory of the immune system.

Live and act

Burnet studied medicine at the University of Melbourne with a doctorate (MD) in 1924 and was in residency as a pathologist at Melbourne Hospital from 1923 to 1925 and he was senior resident at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne with Charles Kellaway who promoted him. In 1926/27 he was a Research Fellow at the Lister Institute of the University of London, where he received his PhD in 1928. He then did research on microbiology and immunology at the Hall Institute in Melbourne, becoming its deputy director in 1928. In 1932/33 he was a Fellow of the National Institute for Medical Research in London at the invitation of Henry Dale , where he began to study virology. Back in Melbourne, he was deputy director from 1934 to 1944 and director of the Hall Institute from 1944 to 1965. He was then a professor at Melbourne University until his retirement in 1978.

In 1937 Burnet found the bacterium Coxiella burnetii , which is the cause of Q fever . He provided essential work for tumor immunology . Macfarlane, who is one of the contemporary witnesses of the Spanish flu , which was rampant worldwide from 1918 to 1920 and killed at least 25 million people, has also dealt with flu all his life. Macfarlane is one of those scientists who have long held the view that the disease originated in the United States , was closely related to wartime conditions, and was primarily brought to Europe by the arrival of US troops in France. Many scientists today share his view.

Further awards

In 1942 he was elected as a member (" Fellow ") in the Royal Society , which in 1947 awarded him the Royal Medal and 1959 the Copley Medal . In 1952 he was awarded the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research . In 1954 he was elected to the National Academy of Sciences , 1958 to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , 1960 to the American Philosophical Society and 1970 to the Royal Society of Edinburgh . In 1960 he received the Australian of the Year award . He was a founding member of the Australian Academy of Sciences and its president from 1965 to 1969.

In 1951 he was ennobled, in 1958 he received the Order of Merit and in 1969 he became KBE . From 1953 he was a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh . 1953 to 1957 he was President of the Association of Microbiological Sciences .

literature

Web links

Commons : Frank Macfarlane Burnet  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Member History: F. Macfarlane Burnet. American Philosophical Society, accessed May 25, 2018 .
  2. ^ Fellows Directory. Biographical Index: Former RSE Fellows 1783–2002. (PDF) Royal Society of Edinburgh, accessed October 13, 2019 .
  3. ↑ Australian of the Year 1960 ( Memento of the original from May 18, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English) @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.australianoftheyear.org.au
personal data
SURNAME Burnet, Frank Macfarlane
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian medic
DATE OF BIRTH September 3, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Traralgon , Victoria , Australia
DATE OF DEATH August 31, 1985
Place of death Melbourne , Australia