2000

Florey Medal winner

Professor Jacques Miller, AO FAA FRS  

Immunologist and Professor Emeritus at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research and The University of Melbourne.

"I doubt whether there is another person living who has made a greater contribution to immunology"

– Sir Gustav Nossal

The Florey Medal 2000 is awarded to Jacques Miller for his discovery of the function of the thymus. This discovery has been a landmark of medical research, and a breakthrough in our knowledge of the workings of the immune system. It has proved crucial to the advance of our understanding of diseases such as cancer, autoimmune disease and AIDS, as well as processes such as transplant rejection, allergy and viral immunity.

Born on 2 April 1931 in Nice, France, Miller emigrated to Australia in 1941 at the age of ten. Following a distinguished undergraduate career in medicine at the University of Sydney, Jacques Miller decided to tackle the question of the role of the thymus in virus-induced leukaemia during his PhD studies in the UK. At this time it was thought that the thymus had no role in immune function and had become virtually redundant during the course of evolution.

Miller made the unexpected discovery that the thymus is in fact vital for correct development of the immune system and thus for the body's defences against infectious diseases, parasitic illnesses and some types of cancer-producing agents. Miller showed that without the thymus at birth, the body is incapable of rejecting foreign tissues and resisting invasion by many microorganisms.

Miller's work was greeted intially with scepticism, but he continued to prove his findings and to win, gradually, international recognition and honour. Faced with an array of tempting offers, in 1965 Miller chose to return to AustraliaMelbourne. at the invitation of Professor (now Sir) Gustav Nossal, to head the new Experimental Pathology Unit at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne.

Here, Miller continued his studies on the immunological function of the thymus. Working with his PhD student, Graham Mitchell, he confirmed for the first time that there are two distinct subsets of lymphocytes in mammalian species: "B cells", derived from bone marrow, and "T cells", derived from the thymus. Miller and Mitchell also established the crucial relationship between the B cells and T cells, proving that B cells required T cell help to function effectively. Together, these cells are essential for the body's ability to fight infection.

It took perseverance in the face of scepticism from colleagues, but within a few years the entire immunological community had accepted Miller's and Mitchell's discoveries. Today, the immunological function of the thymus is taken for granted, and virtually every scholarly article on immunology mentions "T cells" and "B cells".

Miller's discovery of the function of the thymus, and his work with Graham Mitchell in proving the existence and function of T cells and B cells, have opened up whole new fields for the study of immunology, including the study of cancer, autoimmune disease, transplantation and, more recently, HIV and AIDS.

Miller's discovery is certainly "of benefit to human health".  Indeed, as with Howard Florey, each of us today is in some way touched by the achievements of Jacques Miller.