Brigitte Askonas

Brigitte Alice Askonas

Brigitte Askonas was born to Czechoslovak parents, Jewish converts to Catholicism, who fled Austria after the Nazi takeover. Vienna-born Askonas studied biochemistry at McGill University (BSc, MSc) and carried out her postgraduate work in the school of biochemistry at the University of Cambridge where she was a student of Girton College, Cambridge.^{[3][8][9][10][11]}

Her role models in the department included two distinguished scientists,

Her first position was at the Allan Memorial Institute of Psychiatry (associated with McGill University).[9] In 1952, she joined the staff of the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR) where she served as head of the division of Immunology from 1976 to 1988.^[12][13]

During that time, she worked extensively with fellow immunologist

At the NIMR she began researching the