Editing Peter Medawar (section)

=== Immunology ===

Medawar's first scientific research was on the effect of [[malt]] on the development of connective tissue cells ([[mesenchyme]]) in chicken. Reading the draft of the manuscript, Howard Florey commented that it was more philosophical than scientific.<ref name=encyclo/> It was published in the ''[[Quarterly Journal of Experimental Physiology]]'' in 1937.<ref>{{cite web|title=Peter Medawar papers: Reprints, 1937–1950|url=http://wellcomelibrary.org/player/b17220117|website=Wellcome Library|publisher=Wellcome Trust|access-date=19 October 2015}}</ref>

Medawar's involvement with what became [[Organ transplant|transplant]] research began during World War II, when he investigated possible improvements in [[Skin grafting|skin grafts]].<ref name=mphd/> His first publication on the subject was "Sheets of Pure Epidermal Epithelium from Human Skin", which was published in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' in 1941.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Medawar|first1=P. B.|title=Sheets of Pure Epidermal Epithelium from Human Skin|journal=Nature|date=1941|volume=148|issue=3765|pages=783|doi=10.1038/148783a0|bibcode=1941Natur.148..783M|s2cid=4101700|doi-access=free}}</ref> His studies particularly concerned solution for skin wounds among soldiers in the war.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Medawar|first1=P. B.|title=The behaviour and fate of skin autografts and skin homografts in rabbits: A report to the War Wounds Committee of the Medical Research Council.|journal=Journal of Anatomy|date=1944|volume=78|issue=Pt 5|pages=176–199|pmc=1272490|pmid=17104960}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last1=Medawar|first1=P. B.|title=A second study of the behaviour and fate of skin homografts in rabbits: A Report to the War Wounds Committee of the Medical Research Council.|journal=Journal of Anatomy|date=1945|volume=79|issue=Pt 4|pages=157–176|pmid=17104981|pmc=1272582}}</ref> In 1947, he moved to the University of Birmingham, taking along with him his PhD student Leslie Brent and postdoctoral fellow Rupert Billingham. His research became more focused in 1949, when Australian biologist [[Frank Macfarlane Burnet]], at the [[Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research]] in Melbourne, advanced the hypothesis that during [[embryo]]nic life and immediately after birth, [[Cell (biology)|cells]] gradually acquire the ability to distinguish between their own [[Biological tissue|tissue]] substances on the one hand and unwanted cells and foreign material on the other.<ref name=simpson15/>

With Billingham, he published a seminal paper in 1951 on grafting technique.<ref name=Billingham1951>{{Cite journal | last1 = Billingham | first1 = R. E. | last2 = Medawar | first2 = P. B. | year = 1951 | title = The Technique of Free Skin Grafting in Mammals | journal = Journal of Experimental Biology | volume = 28 | issue = 3 | pages = 385–402 | doi = 10.1242/jeb.28.3.385 | bibcode = 1951JExpB..28..385B | url = http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/28/3/385.pdf }}</ref> [[Santa J. Ono]], the American immunologist, has described the enduring impact of this paper to modern science.<ref name=Ono2004>{{Cite journal | last = Ono | first =  Santa Jeremy | year = 2004 | title = The Birth of Transplantation Immunology: the Billingham--Medawar Experiments at Birmingham University and University College London | journal = Journal of Experimental Biology | volume = 207 | issue = 23 | pages = 4013–4014 | doi = 10.1242/jeb.01293 | url = http://jeb.biologists.org/cgi/reprint/207/23/4013.pdf | pmid = 15498946 | s2cid = 33998370 | doi-access = free | bibcode = 2004JExpB.207.4013O }}</ref> Based on this technique of grafting, Medawar's team devised a method to test Burnet's hypothesis. They extracted cells from young mouse embryos and injected them into another mouse of different strains. When the mouse developed into adult and skin grafting from that of the original strain was performed, there was no [[Transplant rejection|tissue rejection]]. The mouse had tolerated the foreign tissue, which would normally be rejected. Their experimental proof of Burnet's hypothesis was first published in a brief article in ''[[Nature (journal)|Nature]]'' in 1953,<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Billingham|first1=R. E.|last2=Brent|first2=L.|last3=Medawar|first3=P. B.|title='Actively acquired tolerance' of foreign cells|journal=Nature|date=1953|volume=172|issue=4379|pages=603–606|doi=10.1038/172603a0|pmid=13099277|bibcode=1953Natur.172..603B|s2cid=4176204}}</ref> followed by a series of papers, and a comprehensive description in ''[[Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B]]'' in 1956, giving the name "actively acquired tolerance".<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Billingham|first1=R. E.|last2=Brent|first2=L.|last3=Medawar|first3=P. B.|title=Quantitative studies on tissue transplantation immunity. III. Actively acquired tolerance|journal=Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences|year=1956|volume=239|issue=666|pages=357–414|doi=10.1098/rstb.1956.0006|bibcode=1956RSPTB.239..357B|doi-access=free}}</ref>

==== Research outcomes ====
Medawar was awarded his [[Nobel Prize]] in 1960 with [[Frank Macfarlane Burnet|Burnet]] for their work in tissue grafting which is the basis of [[organ transplant]]s, and their discovery of acquired immunological tolerance. This work was used in dealing with [[skin graft]]s required after [[Burn (injury)|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 [[organ rejection|rejection of organ transplants]].<ref>{{cite journal|last=Park|first=Hyung Wook|year=2010|title='The shape of the human being as a function of time': time, transplantation, and tolerance in Peter Brian Medawar's research, 1937–1956|journal=Endeavour|volume=34|issue=3|pages=112–121|doi=10.1016/j.endeavour.2010.07.002|pmid=20692038|hdl=10220/9942 |hdl-access=free}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|last=Simpson|first=Elizabeth|year=2004|title=Reminiscences of Sir Peter Medawar: I hope of antigen-specific transplantation tolerance|journal=American Journal of Transplantation|volume=4|issue=12|pages=1937–1940|doi=10.1111/j.1600-6143.2004.00687.x|pmid=15575894|s2cid=9042584}}</ref> It directly laid the foundation for the first successful organ transplantation in humans, specifically [[kidney transplantation]], carried out by an American physician [[Joseph Murray]], who eventually received the 1990 [[Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine]].<ref>{{Cite journal|last1=Barker|first1=C. F.|last2=Markmann|first2=J. F.|date=2013-04-01|title=Historical Overview of Transplantation|journal=Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Medicine|language=en|volume=3|issue=4|pages=a014977|doi=10.1101/cshperspect.a014977|pmc=3684003|pmid=23545575}}</ref>