Frank Macfarlane Burnet (1899 – 1985) was an Australian virologist best known for his contributions to immunology. He conducted pioneering research on bacteriophages and viruses at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, Melbourne, and served as director of the Institute from 1944 to 1965. Burnet's research on viruses resulted in significant discoveries concerning their nature and replication and their interaction with the immune system.
From the mid-1950s, he worked extensively in immunology and was a major
contributor to the theory of clonal selection, which explains how lymphocytes target antigens for destruction. Burnet and Peter Medawar were co-recipients of the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for demonstrating acquired immune tolerance. This research provided the experimental basis for inducing immune tolerance—the platform for developing methods of transplanting solid organs. Burnet left the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute in 1965, and continued to work at the University of Melbourne until his official retirement in 1978. During his working life he wrote 31 books and monographs and more than 500 scientific papers.
Read the rest of this article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Macfarlane_Burnet
_________________________ Today's selected anniversaries:
1661:
Thomas Venner and the Fifth Monarchists unsuccessfully attempted to seize control of London from the newly restored government of Charles II. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fifth_Monarchists)
1781:
At the Battle of Jersey, British forces stopped France's last attempt to militarily invade Jersey, the largest of the Channel Islands in the English Channel. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Jersey)
1838:
Samuel Morse and his assistant Alfred Vail successfully tested the electrical telegraph for the first time at Speedwell Ironworks in Morristown, New Jersey, USA. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electrical_telegraph)
1907:
Italian educator Maria Montessori opened her first school and day care center for working class children in Rome. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maria_Montessori)
1995:
A suspicious fire in a Manila flat led to the foiling of the Bojinka Plot, a precursor to the September 11, 2001 attacks. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Bojinka_Plot)
_______________________ Wiktionary's word of the day:
interject (v) 1. To insert something between other things. 2. To interpose oneself; to intervene. (http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/interject)
______________________ Wikiquote quote of the day:
Yesterday we obeyed kings and bent our necks before emperors. But today we kneel only to truth, follow only beauty, and obey only love. --Khalil Gibran (http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Khalil_Gibran)