Brigitte Askonas obituary

Immunologist whose work led to the development of many new vaccinesBrigitte Askonas, widely known as Ita, who has died aged 89, was one of the leading figures of modern immunology. She built on the work of the science's earlier pioneers, Louis Pasteur and Paul Ehrlich, by increasing understanding of the immune system as an intricate network of many cell types interacting and producing mediators to control their complex functions.The principal base for her work was the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR), north-west London, which she joined in 1952. She spent 36 years there, the last 12 of them as head of the immunology division.Her studies of milk proteins led to her important research on the origin and synthesis of antibodies. She was the first to clone memory B cells, and studied macrophages, the large cells that act as scavengers, capturing proteins, viruses and bacteria. They then present them to lymphocytes, the white blood cells that can respond to infectious pathogens by releasing antibodies. These contributions led to her election as an FRS in 1973.It was only then that she began her seminal work on the role of T lymphocytes in infection, especially infections with the influenza and respiratory syncytial viruses, now widely regarded as her major contribution. She showed that cytolytic T cells, which kill cells infected with viruses, had an ability to recognise multiple subtypes of viruses, unlike antibodies, which recognise a single virus subtype. This prin...
Source: Guardian Unlimited Science - Category: Science Authors: Tags: The Guardian Obituaries Medical research Immunology Biochemistry and molecular biology Science Source Type: news