Doherty, Peter Charles (1940-…), an Australian immunologist, discovered how the body’s immune system recognizes cells that have been infected by viruses. An immunologist is a scientist who studies the body’s defenses against disease. Doherty was awarded the 1996 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine, along with the Swiss immunologist Rolf M. Zinkernagel.
Doherty worked with types of white blood cells called T lymphocytes or T-cells. These cells protect animals from viral infection by killing off infected cells. Doherty showed that T-cells must recognize not only the virus itself but also a special substance in body cells. This substance tells T-cells that the target cell belongs to the same body that they are defending. The substance, called histocompatibility antigen, is specific to every individual’s own immune system. The discovery marked an important advance in clinical medicine. It made a significant contribution to efforts to strengthen the immune response to invading microorganisms. Such microorganisms include HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. Doherty’s work also helped in the efforts to limit the effects of such autoimmune diseases as diabetes, multiple sclerosis, and several rheumatic diseases.
Doherty was born on Oct. 15, 1940, in Brisbane, Australia. In 1962, after studying at the University of Queensland, he began his career as a veterinary officer with the Queensland Department of Primary Industries. He worked there until 1967. Doherty attended Edinburgh University in Scotland. From 1967 to 1971, he was a scientific officer in the Department of Experimental Pathology at the Moredun Institute in Edinburgh. From 1972 to 1975, Doherty was a research fellow in the Department of Microbiology at the John Curtin School of Medical Research (JCSMR), part of the Australian National University at Canberra. During his time at the JCSMR, he carried out the immunology research with Rolf Zinkernagel that led to his Nobel Prize.
From 1975 to 1982, Doherty worked at the Wistar Institute of Anatomy and Biology in Philadelphia. In 1982, he returned to the JCSMR as professor of experimental pathology. Since 1988, Doherty has divided his time between St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis in the United States and the University of Melbourne in Australia. In 1997, he was named Australian of the Year.
