50, 100, 150 Years Ago; January 2011; Scientific American Magazine; by Daniel C. Schlenoff; 1 Page(s)

JANUARY 1961

Mechanism of Immunity
“Although the practical problems of immunization have been solved, immunology remains an important branch of medicine. The immunologist of today, however, is not so much interested in finding out how to immunize people more effectively against diphtheria or poliomyelitis as he is concerned with understanding what happens when people become immune. He asks more sophisticated questions than in the past. For example: Why can a surgeon successfully graft skin or other tissue from one part of the body to another but not from one individual to another, except in the case of grafts between identical twins? Any modern formulation of immunological theory must supply at least provisional answers to these and other equally complex questions. —Sir Macfarlane Burnet”

Burnet won a Nobel Prize in 1960 for his work in immunology.