Rolf Zinkernagel

Professor Rolf Zinkernagel shared the 1996 Nobel Prize for Medicine with Professor Peter Doherty, FAA, FRS, for the seminal discovery of the phenomenon of "MHC restriction". The original work was carried out exclusively in the John Curtin School of Medical Research at ANU between 1973 and 1975. The significance of the discovery is three fold: first it solved the middle of the function of the major histocompatibility gene complex (MHC); secondly, it provided a basis for the mechanisms whereby the immune system distinguishes between self and foreign antigens; thirdly, it set the stage for much of the subsequent work on pathogenesis of autoimmune disease, organ transplantation and design of vaccines against microorganisms and tumours.

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