Peter C. Doherty

Facts

Peter C. Doherty

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Peter C. Doherty
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1996

Born: 15 October 1940, Brisbane, Australia

Affiliation at the time of the award: St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, Memphis, TN, USA

Prize motivation: “for their discoveries concerning the specificity of the cell mediated immune defence”

Prize share: 1/2

Work

When the body's cells are attacked by viruses, the immune system begins killing the infected cells. By studying mice, Peter Doherty and Rolf Zinkernagel proved in 1973 how the immune system recognises virus-ridden cells. A kind of white blood cell, the T-cell, kills the virus-ridden cells, but only if it recognises both the foreign substances, viruses, and certain substances from the body's own cells. The discovery has provided an important basis for producing vaccines and medicines against infectious diseases, and also for treating and understanding inflammatory diseases and cancer.

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