Peter Medawar

For more information on Sir Peter Brian Medawar, visit Britannica.com.

British immunologist (1915–1987)

The son of an Englishwoman and a Lebanese businessman trading in Brazil, Medawar was born in Rio de Janeiro and brought to Britain at the end of World War I. He was educated at Oxford, graduating in zoology in 1937, and remained there to work under Howard Florey. His first researches concerned factors affecting tissue-culture growth but during World War II he turned his attention to medical biology. He subsequently developed a concentrated solution of the blood-clotting protein fibrinogen, which could be used clinically as a biological glue to fix together damaged nerves and keep nerve grafts in position.

The terrible burns of many war casualties led Medawar to study the reasons why skin grafts from donors are rejected. He realized that each individual develops his own immunological system and that the length of time a graft lasts depends on how closely related the recipient and donor are. He found that grafting was successful not only between identical twins but also between nonidentical, or fraternal, twins. It had already been shown in cattle that tissues, notably the red-cell precursors, are exchanged between twin fetuses. This led to the suggestion by Macfarlane Burnet that the immunological system is not developed at conception but is gradually acquired. Thus if an embryo is injected with the tissues of a future donor, the animal after birth should be tolerant to any grafts from that donor.

Medawar tested this hypothesis by injecting mouse embryos, verifying that they do not have the ability to form antibodies against foreign tissue but do acquire immunologic tolerance to it. For this discovery Medawar and Burnet were awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine.

Medawar moved from Oxford in 1947 to the chair of zoology at Birmingham, a post he held until 1951 when he was appointed professor of zoology at University College, London. In 1962 he accepted the important post of director of the National Institute for Medical Research. For some years he tried to combine his research work with a heavy administrative load. But in 1969 Medawar suffered his first stroke. Although he continued as director until 1971, the stroke had seriously restricted his mobility and dexterity. Despite this he continued his research work on cancer at the Clinical Research Centre, London. A second stroke in 1980, and a third in 1984, brought Medawar's research career to an end.

He continued to write, however, and in 1986 published his autobiography, Memoirs of a Thinking Radish, and collected most of his early essays in Pluto's Republic (1982). It was in one of these essays, first published in 1964, that Medawar characterized science in a much quoted phrase as “the art of the soluble.”

The British zoologist Peter Brian Medawar (1915-1987) made important contributions to the knowledge of growth, aging, and especially the biology of tissue transplantation.

Peter Medawar was born on Feb. 28, 1915, in Petropolis, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil of a British mother and Lebanese father. He was educated at Marlborough College and subsequently at Magdalen College, Oxford, where he studied zoology and comparative anatomy in the Goodrichian tradition. His early research was concerned with the factors controlling growth in tissue culture. He was greatly influenced in this work by Darcy Thompson, author of Growth and Form. From an early stage in his career Medawar distinguished himself by his competence in both the experimental and the theoretical aspects of biology. He won several prizes at Oxford, where he became a university demonstrator and fellow of Magdalen College.

During World War II Medawar investigated the repair of peripheral nerve injuries. In one of these investigations he devised the first biological "glue," which he used to reunite severed nerves and to fix grafts. This work stimulated his interest in the techniques for transplantation. In 1942 Medawar turned his attention to skin grafts as a result of the need to replace skin after severe burns. He demonstrated that grafts from unrelated donors (homografts) are normally destroyed as a consequence of an immunological response - the homograft reaction - on the part of the host. He was determined then to break down this homograft barrier.

In 1948, when only 32, Medawar was appointed Mason professor of zoology at Birmingham University. A year later he was elected a fellow of the Royal Society. At Birmingham he became interested in problems of cellular heredity and transformation and renewed his attack on the homograft problem. While attempting to devise a method to distinguish between identical and fraternal cattle twins by exchanging skin grafts between twin pairs, he discovered that even fraternal twins of unlike sex would accept each other's grafts. From this he hypothesized that an exchange of cells between the cattle before birth brought about graft tolerance after birth.

In 1951, when Medawar moved to the Jodrell chair of zoology at University College, London, he followed the lead afforded by the cattle work and demonstrated that inoculation of very young mice with cells from unrelated donors created a tolerance to homografts from their donors later in life. Apart from establishing that the homograft problem was in principle soluble and providing a great impetus to research to this area, this finding introduced a new concept into immunology, that of acquired immunological tolerance. For this work Medawar received a Nobel Prize in 1960. He also succeeded in extracting from cells the antigens capable of eliciting transplantation immunity, thus setting the stage for further biochemical studies. He also demonstrated that homograft reactivity is a form of delayed allergy.

In 1962 Medawar was appointed director of the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill. Undaunted by administrative responsibilities, he continued to work energetically in his laboratory. Wherever he worked Medawar attracted a dedicated group of students and research fellows. With characteristic generosity he treated them as colleagues and collaborators, and from the beginning he gave them unstinting help and encouragement. Many former members of his "school" went on to occupy distinguished positions around the world. His many recognitions and awards included a knighthood and numerous honorary degrees. Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, Medawar produced several books, some with his wife as coauthor, in addition to his many essays on growth, aging, immunity, and cellular transformations. In one of his most popular books, Advice to a Young Scientist, Medawar wrote that scientists are not geniuses, merely people with common sense and curiosity. He died on Oct. 2, 1987, at the age of 72.

Further Reading

For sketches of Medawar's life and work see Sir Peter Medawar (1915-1987) by N.A. Mitchison in Nature (Nov. 12, 1987); J.S. Medawar's A Very Decided Preference: Life with Peter Medawar (1990); the Nobel Foundation, Physiology or Medicine: Nobel Lectures, Including Presentation Speeches and Laureates' Biographies (3 vols., 1964-1967), and Theodore L. Sourkes, Nobel Prize Winners in Medicine and Physiology, 1901-1965 (rev. ed. 1967).

Sir Peter Medawar
Born	28 February 1915(1915-02-28) Petrópolis, Brazil
Died	2 October 1987 (aged 72) London, United Kingdom
Residence	London
Nationality	British
Fields	Zoology; Immunology
Institutions	Birmingham University University College London National Institute for Medical Research
Alma mater	Oxford University
Influences	Howard Florey; J.Z. Young
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1960; Order of Merit 1981
Religious stance	Atheist

Sir Peter Brian Medawar OM CBE FRS (28 February 1915 – 2 October 1987) was a British zoologist. Medawar's work on graft rejection and the discovery of acquired immune tolerance was fundamental to the practice of tissue and organ transplants. He was awarded the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet. Until partially disabled by a cerebral infarction, he was Director of the National Institute for Medical Research at Mill Hill.

Contents 1 Life 1.1 Early years 1.2 Achievements 1.3 Later years 1.4 Views on religion 2 Research 2.1 Early research 2.2 Outcome of research 2.3 Theory of ageing 3 Books 4 Notes 5 References 6 External links

Life

Early years

Medawar was born on 28 February 1915, in Petrópolis, Brazil (a town 40 miles north of Rio de Janeiro) of a British mother and a Lebanese father. His status as a British citizen was acquired at birth: "My birth was registered at the British Consulate in good time to acquire the status of 'natural-born British subject'.^[1] Medawar left Brazil for England in 1918, and lived there for the rest of his life.

Medawar was educated at Marlborough College and Magdalen College, Oxford, where he eventually became a Fellow.

Achievements

Medawar was professor of zoology at the University of Birmingham (1947–51) and University College London (1951–62). In 1962 he was appointed director of the National Institute for Medical Research, and became professor of experimental medicine at the Royal Institution (1977–83), and president of the Royal Postgraduate Medical School (1981–87). Medawar was a scientist of great inventiveness who was interested in many other subjects including opera, philosophy and cricket.

He was knighted in 1965^[2] and appointed to the Order of Merit in 1981.

Later years

Whilst attending the annual British Association meeting in 1969, Medawar suffered a stroke when reading the lesson at Exeter Cathedral, a duty which falls on every new President of the British Association. It was, as he said, "monstrous bad luck because Jim Whyte Black had not yet devised beta-blockers, which slow the heart-beat and could have preserved my health and my career".^[3] Medawar’s failing health may have had repercussions for medical science and the relations between the scientific community and government. Before the stroke, Medawar was one of Britain's most influential scientists, especially in the medico-biological field.

After the impairment of his speech and movement Medawar, with his wife's help, reorganised his life and continued to write and do research though on a greatly restricted scale. However, more haemorrhages followed and in 1987 Medawar died. He is buried — as is his wife Jean (1913–2005) — at Alfriston in East Sussex.^[4]

Views on religion

"... I believe that a reasonable case can be made for saying, not that we believe in God because He exists but rather that He exists because we believe in Him... Considered as an element of the world, God has the same degree and kind of objective reality as do other products of mind... I regret my disbelief in God and religious answers generally, for I believe it would give satisfaction and comfort to many in need of it if it were possible to discover and propound good scientific and philosophic reasons to believe in God... To abdicate from the rule of reason and substitute for it an authentication of belief by the intentness and degree of conviction with which we hold it can be perilous and destructive... I am a rationalist—something of a period piece nowadays, I admit..." ^[5]

Research

Early research

His involvement with what became transplant research began during WWII, when he investigated possible improvements in skin grafts. It became focused in 1949, when Burnet advanced the hypothesis that during embryonic life and immediately after birth, cells gradually acquire the ability to distinguish between their own tissue substances on the one hand and unwanted cells and foreign material on the other.

With Rupert Billingham, he published a seminal paper in 1951.^[6] Santa J. Ono, the American immunologist, has described the enduring impact of this paper to modern science.^[7]

Outcome of research

Medawar was awarded his Nobel Prize in 1960 with Burnet for their work in tissue grafting which is the basis of organ transplants, and their discovery of acquired immunological tolerance. This work was used in dealing with skin grafts required after burns. Medawar's work resulted in a shift of emphasis in the science of immunology from one that attempts to deal with the fully developed immunity mechanism to one that attempts to alter the immunity mechanism itself, as in the attempt to suppress the body's rejection of organ transplants.

Theory of ageing

Medawar's 1951 lecture An unsolved problem of biology (published 1952) addressed the question of why evolution has permitted us to deteriorate with age, although (1) ageing lowers our individual fitness, and (2) there is no obvious necessity for ageing.^[8] His insight was that the force of natural selection is weaker late in life (because the fecundity of younger age-groups is overwhelmingly more significant in producing the next generation). What happens to an organism after reproduction is only weakly reflected in natural selection by the effect on its younger relatives. He pointed out that likelihood of death at various times of life, as judged by life tables, was an indirect measure of fitness, that is, the capacity of an organism to propagate its genes. Life tables for humans show, for example that the lowest likelihood of death in human females comes at about age 14, which in primitive societies would likely be an age of peak reproduction. This has served as the basis for all three modern theories for the evolution of ageing.

Books

His books include The Uniqueness of Man, which includes essays on immunology, graft rejection and acquired immune tolerance; Induction and Intuition in Scientific Thought; The Art of the Soluble, a book of essays, later reprinted in Pluto's Republic; Advice to a Young Scientist; Aristotle to Zoos (with his wife Jean Shinglewood Taylor); The Life Science, The Limits of Science and his last, in 1986, Memoirs of a Thinking Radish, an autobiography. One of his best-known essays is his 1961 demolition of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin's The Phenomenon of Man, of which he said: "Its author can be excused of dishonesty only on the grounds that before deceiving others he has taken great pains to deceive himself".^[9]

Notes

1. ^ Medawar P.B. 1986. Memoirs of a thinking radish: an autobiography. Oxford. p5
2. ^ "Honours and Awards, Home Office" (^{[dead link]}), The London Gazette (43819): 10841, 1965, http://www.gazettes-online.co.uk/ViewPDF.aspx?pdf=43819&geotype=London&gpn=10841&type=ArchivedIssuePage&all=&exact=Medawar&atleast=&similar= 
3. ^ Medawar P.B. 1986. Memoirs of a thinking radish: an autobiography. Oxford. p153
4. ^ Leslie Baruch Brent. "Jean Medawar's obituary" Independent, The (London). May 12, 2005.
5. ^ Peter Medawar 1984. 'The question of the existence of God' in The limits of science Harper and Row.
6. ^ Billingham, R.E.; Medawar, P.B. (1951), "The Technique of Free Skin Grafting in Mammals", Journal of Experimental Biology 28 (3): 385–402, http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/28/3/385.pdf 
7. ^ Ono, Santa Jeremy (2004), "The Birth of Transplantation Immunology: the Billingham--Medawar Experiments at Birmingham University and University College London", Journal of Experimental Biology 207 (23): 4013–4014, doi:10.1242/jeb.01293, PMID 15498946, http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/207/23/4013.pdf 
8. ^ This second premise is weak, because it assumes (i.e. begs the question) that cellular repair mechanisms always operate perfectly. If they do not, there is a clear implication that ageing will occur.
9. ^ Medawar, P.B. (1961), "Critical Notice", Mind LXX (277): 99–106, doi:10.1093/mind/LXX.277.99, http://mind.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/reprint/LXX/277/99 

References

• Simpson, Elizabeth (December 2004). "Reminiscences of Sir Peter Medawar: in hope of antigen-specific transplantation tolerance". Am. J. Transplant. 4 (12): 1937–40. doi:10.1111/j.1600-6143.2004.00687.x. PMID 15575894. 
• Billington, W David (October 2003). "The immunological problem of pregnancy: 50 years with the hope of progress. A tribute to Peter Medawar". J. Reprod. Immunol. 60 (1): 1–11. doi:10.1016/S0165-0378(03)00083-4. PMID 14568673. 
• Kyle, Robert A; Shampo Marc A (April 2003). "Peter Medawar--discoverer of immunologic tolerance". Mayo Clin. Proc. 78 (4): 401, 403. doi:10.4065/78.4.401. PMID 12683691. 
• Charlesworth, B (November 2000). "Fisher, Medawar, Hamilton and the evolution of aging". Genetics 156 (3): 927–31. PMID 11063673. 
• Raju, T N (June 1999). "The Nobel chronicles. 1960: Sir Frank Macfarlance Burnet (1899-1985), and Sir Peter Brian Medawar (1915-87)". Lancet 353 (9171): 2253. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(05)76313-3. PMID 10393027. 
• Rapaport, F T (1999). "Medawar Prize Lecture, 15 July 1998. The contribution of human subjects to experimental transplantation: the HLA story". Transplant. Proc. 31 (1-2): 60–6. doi:10.1016/S0041-1345(98)02092-2. PMID 10083012. 
• Medawar, J (1999). "Reminiscences of Peter Medawar". Transplant. Proc. 31 (1-2): 49. doi:10.1016/S0041-1345(98)02066-1. PMID 10083008. 
• Terasaki, P (1997). "1996 Medawar Prize Lecture". Transplant. Proc. 29 (1-2): 33–8. doi:10.1016/S0041-1345(96)00005-X. PMID 9123024. 
• Starzl, T E (March 1995). "Peter Brian Medawar: father of transplantation". J. Am. Coll. Surg. 180 (3): 332–6. PMID 7874344. 
• Brent, L (September 1992). "Sir Peter Brian Medawar (28 February 1915-2 October 1987)". Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 136 (3): 439–41. PMID 11623082. 
• Mitchison, N A (1990). "Peter Brian Medawar: 28 February 1915-2 October 1987". Biographical memoirs of fellows of the Royal Society. Royal Society (Great Britain) 35: 283–301. PMID 11622280. 
• Hamilton, D (April 1989). "Peter Medawar and clinical transplantation". Immunol. Lett. 21 (1): 9–13. doi:10.1016/0165-2478(89)90004-7. PMID 2656517. 
• Gowans, J L (April 1989). "Peter Medawar: his life and work". Immunol. Lett. 21 (1): 5–8. doi:10.1016/0165-2478(89)90003-5. PMID 2656514. 
• "Articles based on presentations at the Sir Peter Medawar Memorial Symposium. London, 5 December and 6th, 1988". Immunol. Lett. 21 (1): 1–99. April 1989. PMID 2656507. 
• Monaco, A P (February 1989). "The legacy of Sir Peter Medawar". Transplant. Proc. 21 (1 Pt 1): 1–4. PMID 2650059. 
• Tanner, J (1988). "Sir Peter Medawar 1915-1987". Ann. Hum. Biol. 15 (1): 89. doi:10.1080/03014468800009501. PMID 3279900. 
• Billingham, R E (January 1988). "In memoriam. Sir Peter Medawar--February 18, 1915-October 2, 1987". Transplantation (journal) 45 (1): preceding 1. doi:10.1097/00007890-198801000-00001. PMID 3276037. 
• Simpson, E (January 1988). "Sir Peter Medawar 1915-1987". Immunol. Today 9 (1): 4–6. doi:10.1016/0167-5699(88)91344-8. PMID 3076758. 
• Melnick, M (1988). "Peter Medawar--scientific meliorist". J. Craniofac. Genet. Dev. Biol. 8 (1): 1–2. PMID 3062035. 
• Möller, G (December 1987). "Sir Peter Medawar, 1915-1987". Immunol. Rev. 100: 9–10. doi:10.1111/j.1600-065X.1987.tb00525.x. PMID 3326829. 
• Mitchison, N A (1987). "Sir Peter Medawar (1915-1987)". Nature 330 (6144): 112. doi:10.1038/330112a0. PMID 3313060. 
• "Peter Brian Medawar". Cell. Immunol. 62 (2): 235–42. August 1981. doi:10.1016/0008-8749(81)90319-1. PMID 7026052. 
• Lawrence, H (August 1981). "Advances in immunology: a meeting in honor of Sir Peter Medawar". Cell. Immunol. 62 (2): 233–310. doi:10.1016/0008-8749(81)90318-X. PMID 7026051. 
• Guntrip, H (September 1978). "Psychoanalysis and some scientific and philosophical critics: (Dr Eliot Slater, Sir Peter Medawar and Sir Karl Popper)". The British journal of medical psychology 51 (3): 207–24. PMID 356870. 
• Kenéz, J (April 1975). "[Medawar and organ transplantation]". Orvosi hetilap 116 (16): 931–4. PMID 1090878. 
• Sulek, K (March 1969). "[Nobel prize for F. M. Burnett and P. B. Medawar in 1960 for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance]". Wiad. Lek. 22 (5): 505–6. PMID 4892417. 
• "Sir Peter Brian Medawar". Triangle; the Sandoz journal of medical science 9 (2): 79–80. 1969. PMID 4939701. 

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Peter Medawar

• Biography from Sci-Quest Journal
• Magdalen College Oxford, biography of Peter Medawar
• Biography on Nobel Prize website
• Works by or about Peter Medawar in libraries (WorldCat catalog)

v • d • e Nobel Laureates in Physiology or Medicine Max Theiler (1951) · Selman Waksman (1952) · Hans Krebs / Fritz Lipmann (1953) · John Enders / Thomas Weller / Frederick Robbins (1954) · Hugo Theorell (1955) · André Cournand / Werner Forssmann / Dickinson W. Richards (1956) · Daniel Bovet (1957) · George Beadle / Edward Tatum / Joshua Lederberg (1958) · Severo Ochoa / Arthur Kornberg (1959) · Frank Burnet / Peter Medawar (1960) · Georg von Békésy (1961) · Francis Crick / James D. Watson / Maurice Wilkins (1962) · John Eccles / Alan Hodgkin / Andrew Huxley (1963) · Konrad Bloch / Feodor Lynen (1964) · François Jacob / André Lwoff / Jacques Monod (1965) · Francis Rous / Charles B. Huggins (1966) · Ragnar Granit / Haldan Hartline / George Wald (1967) · Robert W. Holley / Har Khorana / Marshall Nirenberg (1968) · Max Delbrück / Alfred Hershey / Salvador Luria (1969) · Bernard Katz / Ulf von Euler / Julius Axelrod (1970) · Earl Sutherland, Jr. (1971) · Gerald Edelman / Rodney Porter (1972) · Karl von Frisch / Konrad Lorenz / Nikolaas Tinbergen (1973) · Albert Claude / Christian de Duve / George Palade (1974) · David Baltimore / Renato Dulbecco / Howard Temin (1975) Complete roster · 1901–1925 · 1926–1950 · 1951–1975 · 1976–2000 · 2001–present

Persondata
NAME	Medawar, Sir Peter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Scientist
DATE OF BIRTH	28 February 1915
PLACE OF BIRTH	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
DATE OF DEATH	2 October 1987
PLACE OF DEATH	London, United Kingdom

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