Peter Medawar
Biologist who discovered acquired immune tolerance, enabling organ transplantation.
via Wikipedia: Lamarckism · see source
Through a succession of research and teaching posts, and senior U.K. biomedical leadership positions, he contributed seminal discoveries in immunology, including one honored by a Nobel Prize shared with Australian Mac Burnet in 1960. His works on acquired immune tolerance and graft rejection have been fundamental to tissue and organ transplantation.
Born in Brazil to a British mother and a Lebanese father, Medawar was a British citizen from birth and later renounced his Brazilian citizenship. He was educated at Marlborough College, a public school he deeply disliked, describing it as a tribal institution and likening it to training schools for the Nazi SS. However, he credited his biology teacher there, Ashley Gordon Lowndes, with firing his enthusiasm for the subject. Medawar then studied zoology at Magdalen College, Oxford, under John Young. He held named professorships in zoology at the University of Birmingham and University College London, and later became Director of the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill until partially disabled by a cerebral infarction.
With his doctoral student Leslie Brent and postdoctoral fellow Rupert E. Billingham, Medawar demonstrated the principle of acquired immunological tolerance, a phenomenon of immune system unresponsiveness to certain molecules, which had been theoretically predicted by Mac Burnet. This understanding became the foundation for tissue and organ transplantation. For this discovery, Medawar and Burnet shared the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Medawar is remembered not only as the "father of transplantation" but also for his wit, both in person and in his popular writings. Richard Dawkins called him the wittiest of all scientific writers, and Stephen Jay Gould described him as the cleverest man he had ever known.
- died
- 2 October 1987
- field
- Biology, immunology
- nationality
- Brazilian and British citizen by birth; later renounced Brazilian citizenship
- known_for
- Discovery of acquired immunological tolerance; Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1960); termed 'father of transplantation'
Lore & Background
Medawar was the youngest child of a Lebanese father and a British mother. Billingham, Medawar demonstrated the principle of acquired immunological tolerance, theoretically predicted by Mac Burnet. This understanding became the foundation of tissue and organ transplantation. He and Burnet shared the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance. Medawar is remembered for his wit, both in person and in his 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'.
Reader's Guide
Medawar's discovery of acquired immunological tolerance revolutionized medicine by providing the theoretical and experimental basis for tissue and organ transplantation. His work, conducted with Brent and Billingham, demonstrated that the immune system could be rendered unresponsive to specific molecules, a phenomenon predicted by Burnet. This principle directly enabled the development of transplant surgery, saving countless lives. Beyond his research, Medawar held senior leadership roles in U.K. His influence extended to public understanding of science through his witty popular writings, earning him praise from figures like Dawkins and Gould. His legacy as the 'father of transplantation' rests on both his foundational scientific contributions and his role in shaping modern immunology.
Did You Know?
- Medawar was born in Brazil to a Lebanese father and British mother, and held both Brazilian and British citizenship at birth.
- He renounced his Brazilian citizenship after being denied exemption from conscription by President Eurico Gaspar Dutra.
- His doctoral thesis was approved in 1941, but he did not officially supplicate for the degree because he spent the money on an urgent appendicectomy.
- He likened his secondary school, Marlborough College, to training schools for the Nazi SS, calling it 'founded upon the twin pillars of sex and sadism.'
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