Simpson Elizabeth
Transplantation Biology Group, Clinical Sciences Centre, Imperial College, London, Hammersmith Hospital, London W12 ONN, UK.
Am J Transplant. 2004 Dec;4(12):1937-40. doi: 10.1111/j.1600-6143.2004.00687.x.
Peter Medawar's career in medical research (he always described himself as a medical research scientist) began as a student of zoology in Oxford. He obtained a first class degree in 1936, aged 21, and undertook postgraduate studies with Florey. His work was anchored in a broad field; he was adept at addressing novel questions in the context of prior ideas and knowledge. His earlier interest in growth, driven as much by mathematics as biology, gave way to transplantation at the beginning of World War II, treatment of burns patients being the driver. He interpreted the results of grafting autologous and allogeneic human skin, observed clinically and microscopically, as immunological; he identified accelerated donor-specific reactions to subsequent grafts as 'second set', and described cell (lymphocyte) mediated infiltration of allo- but not auto-grafts following initial vascularization, both in the patient context and in experimental animals. He became intrigued by the consequences of hematopoietic chimerism, from which his landmark discoveries on the induction of transplantation tolerance derive. These results, his interpretation and dissemination of them, gave hope to transplant surgeons that donor-specific transplant tolerance would be achievable. Many immunosuppressive drugs later, we are now reapproaching this hope, from various angles.
彼得·梅达沃的医学研究职业生涯（他总是将自己描述为一名医学研究科学家）始于牛津大学动物学专业的学生时期。1936年，年仅21岁的他获得了一等学位，并跟随弗洛里进行研究生学习。他的工作涉及广泛领域；他善于在先前的思想和知识背景下解决新问题。他早期对生长的兴趣，受数学和生物学的影响同样大，在第二次世界大战开始时让位于移植研究，烧伤患者的治疗成为推动因素。他将临床上和显微镜下观察到的自体和异体人皮肤移植结果解释为免疫反应；他将对后续移植的加速的供体特异性反应识别为“二次反应”，并描述了在患者和实验动物中，初次血管化后同种异体而非自体移植的细胞（淋巴细胞）介导的浸润。他对造血嵌合体的后果产生了兴趣，他关于诱导移植耐受的里程碑式发现即源于此。这些结果以及他对它们的解释和传播，给移植外科医生带来了希望，即实现供体特异性移植耐受是有可能的。在多种免疫抑制药物出现后的今天，我们正从各个角度重新接近这一希望。
