Peter Doherty (immunologist)

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Peter Doherty
AC FRS FMedSci
Born
Peter Charles Doherty

15 October 1940 (1940-10-15) (age 83)[3]
Brisbane, Queensland
, Australia
NationalityAustralian
Alma mater
Known forMajor histocompatibility complex
AwardsPaul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize (1983)
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1996)
Australian of the Year (1997)
Leeuwenhoek Lecture (1999)[1]
Scientific career
FieldsMedicine
Immunology
InstitutionsJohn Curtin School of Medical Research
Australian National University
ThesisStudies in the experimental pathology of louping-ill encephalitis (1970)
Doctoral advisorG. L. Montgomery
J. T. Stamp[2]

Peter Charles Doherty

Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as an iconic "innovation and invention".[9]

Early life and education

Peter Charles Doherty was born in the Brisbane suburb of Sherwood on 15 October 1940, to Eric Charles Doherty and Linda Doherty (née Byford).[10][11] He grew up in Oxley,[12] and attended Indooroopilly State High School (which now has a lecture theatre named after him).

After receiving his bachelor's degree in veterinary science in 1962 from the University of Queensland, he was a rural veterinary officer for the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Stock before taking up laboratory-based work at the Department's Animal Research Institute.[13] There he met microbiology graduate Penelope Stephens and they were married in 1965.[13] Doherty received his master's degree in veterinary science in 1966 from the University of Queensland.[14]

He obtained his PhD in pathology [15] in 1970 from the University of Edinburgh, Scotland,[2] then returned to Australia to continue his research at the John Curtin School of Medical Research within the Australian National University in Canberra.

Research and career

Doherty's research focuses[16][17] on the immune system and his Nobel Prize work described how the body's immune cells protect against viruses. He and Rolf Zinkernagel, the co-recipient of the 1996 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, discovered how T cells recognise their target antigens in combination with major histocompatibility complex (MHC) proteins.[18]

Viruses infect host cells and reproduce inside them. Killer T-cells destroy those infected cells so that the viruses cannot reproduce. Zinkernagel and Doherty discovered that, in order for killer T cells to recognise infected cells, they had to recognise two molecules on the surface of the cell – not only the virus antigen, but also a molecule of the

meningitis viruses too.[19]

Awards and honours

Doherty was elected a

Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1987.[1] In 1997, he received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement.[20] He is the patron of the eponymous Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity (Doherty Institute), a joint venture between the University of Melbourne and Melbourne Health. It houses a group of infection and immunology experts, including Director Professor Sharon Lewin, who are charged with leading the battle against infectious diseases in humans. This became operational in 2014.[21] He became an Honorary Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2015.[22] In the same year he was elected Fellow of the Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences (FAHMS).[23] In April 2017 he was inducted as a Fellow of the Royal Society of Victoria (FRSV).[24]

Moreton Bay Boys College,[26] and Murrumba State Secondary College[27]
each have a house named after him.

Non academic publications

Personal life

As of 2021[update], Peter Doherty and his wife Penny live in Melbourne.[29] They have two sons, Michael, a neurologist working in the United States,[30] and James, a Melbourne-based barrister,[13] and six grandchildren.[31] He gained a renewed level of fame in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic when he accidentally tweeted the phrase 'Dan Murphy opening hours' instead of performing a web search for it.[32][33]

Doherty currently[when?] spends three months of the year conducting research at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, where he is a faculty member at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center through the College of Medicine.[34] For the other 9 months of the year, he works in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Melbourne, Victoria.

References

  1. ^ a b "Peter Doherty". royalsociety.org. Archived from the original on 12 June 2018. Retrieved 12 June 2018.
  2. ^
    EThOS 699841. Free access icon
  3. ^
    doi:10.1093/ww/9780199540884.013.13865. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  4. ^ "Laureate Professor Peter Doherty AC". University of Queensland. 2 November 2015. Archived from the original on 2 November 2018. Retrieved 2 November 2018.
  5. ^ "Peter Doherty - Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative". Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative. Archived from the original on 28 September 2013. Retrieved 26 September 2013.
  6. ISBN 978-1-74196-809-5
    .
  7. ^ "It's an Honour - Honours - Search Australian Honours". www.itsanhonour.gov.au. Archived from the original on 29 January 2019. Retrieved 30 July 2009.
  8. ^ "Peter C. Doherty, PhD". Archived from the original on 5 September 2015. Retrieved 30 August 2015.
  9. ^ Bligh, Anna (10 June 2009). "PREMIER UNVEILS QUEENSLAND'S 150 ICONS". Queensland Government. Archived from the original on 24 May 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2017.
  10. ^ "Births". The Courier-Mail. 21 October 1940. p. 6, col. 1. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  11. ^ "Peter C. Doherty - Biographical". Archived from the original on 22 December 2016. Retrieved 7 March 2017.
  12. ^ "Antipodes Science: Peter Doherty...downloaded". New Scientist. 23 November 1996. Archived from the original on 23 October 2020.
  13. ^ a b c Collis, Brad. "Survival of the Cells". Innovation Intelligence. Archived from the original on 2 September 2021. Retrieved 2 September 2021.
  14. ^ "Laureate Professor Peter Doherty AC". University of Queensland. 2 November 2015. Archived from the original on 2 November 2018. Retrieved 4 November 2018.
  15. ^ "The American Association of Immunologists - Peter C. Doherty". Archived from the original on 25 September 2020.
  16. ^ Peter Doherty publications indexed by Google Scholar Edit this at Wikidata
  17. ^ Peter Doherty publications indexed by the Scopus bibliographic database. (subscription required)
  18. ^ Hawkes, Nigel (8 October 1996). "Immunity scientists win Nobel prize". The Times (London). p. 13.
  19. ^ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1996". Archived from the original on 25 October 2018. Retrieved 25 October 2018.
  20. American Academy of Achievement
    .
  21. ^ "Peter Doherty Institute, University of Melbourne". Archived from the original on 6 July 2014. Retrieved 8 July 2014.
  22. ^ "Report of the Annual Fellows' Meeting 2015 - The Academy of Medical Sciences". www.acmedsci.ac.uk. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 7 January 2016.
  23. ^ "Fellowship | AAHMS – Australian Academy of Health and Medical Sciences". www.aahms.org. Archived from the original on 26 June 2018. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  24. ^ "Elected Fellows of the Royal Society of Victoria - The Royal Society of Victoria". The Royal Society of Victoria. Archived from the original on 7 July 2017. Retrieved 27 June 2018.
  25. ^ "House Programs". www.jmss.vic.edu.au. Archived from the original on 26 June 2018. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  26. ^ "Moreton Bay Boys' College School House Program". Moreton Bay Boys' College. Archived from the original on 26 June 2018. Retrieved 26 June 2018.
  27. ^ "Murrumba State Secondary College". murrumbassc.eq.edu.au. 15 September 2011. Retrieved 28 January 2019.
  28. ^ Alberici, Emma (25 August 2015), Interview: Peter Doherty, Nobel Prize Winner for Medicine in 1996, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, retrieved 27 August 2022
  29. ^ Willis, Olivia (13 July 2021). "Nobel prize winner Peter Doherty on navigating COVID-19 and life in lockdown". ABC News. Archived from the original on 13 July 2021.
  30. ^ Walker, Jamie (4 April 2020). "Coronavirus is just as lethal as Spanish flu, Nobel laureate Peter Doherty warns". The Australian. Archived from the original on 4 September 2021.
  31. ^ Durkin, Patrick (8 May 2020). "'I'm 79, I won the Nobel Prize and I don't give a s---'". Australian Financial Review. Archived from the original on 10 May 2020.
  32. ^ Doherty, Peter [@ProfPCDoherty] (27 April 2020). "Dan Murphy opening hours" (Tweet). Retrieved 9 January 2024 – via Twitter.
  33. ^ McGowan, Michael (27 April 2020). "Nobel prize-winning immunologist accidentally asks Twitter when he'll be able to get a drink". The Guardian. Retrieved 9 January 2024.
  34. ^ "UTHSC people search". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015.

External links

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