About Peter Doherty (immunologist)
Peter Charles Doherty (born 15 October 1940) is an Australian immunologist and Nobel laureate. Doherty received the Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research in 1995, the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly with Rolf M. Zinkernagel in 1996 and was named Australian of the Year in 1997. In the Australia Day Honours of 1997, he was named a Companion of the Order of Australia for his work with Zinkernagel. He is also a National Trust Australian Living Treasure. In 2009 as part of the Q150 celebrations, Doherty's immune system research was announced as one of the Q150 Icons of Queensland for its role as an iconic "innovation and invention". In 2012, Doherty was appointed as an Honorary Professor in the School of Biochemistry and Immunology at Trinity College Dublin. 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. Zinkernagel and Doherty discovered that the MHC was responsible for the body fighting meningitis viruses too.
Biography source: Wikipedia. The profile adds birthday-specific historical context from the Celebs Birthday Today editorial database.