Billingham, Rupert Everett

▪ 2003

      British-born American immunologist and transplant researcher (b. Oct. 15, 1921, Warminster, Eng.—d. Nov. 16, 2002, Boston, Mass.), was a pioneer in the field of immunologic theory and transplant science. Under his mentor, zoologist Peter B. Medawar, Billingham helped conduct a series of groundbreaking experiments involving skin grafts on animals in the late 1940s and early '50s that proved the theory of acquired immunologic tolerance—the concept on which tissue transplantation was founded. These experiments led to ultimately successful attempts at organ transplantation in humans. Medawar was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1960 and shared the prize money with Billingham. From 1965 to 1971 Billingham served as chairman of the department of medical genetics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He went on to chair the department of cell Biology and anatomy at the Southwestern Medical School, University of Texas, from 1971 to 1986. He served (1974–76) as president of the Transplantation Society and (1983–86) as president of the International Society for Immunology of Reproduction.

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