Jacques Miller facts for kids

Jacques Francis Albert Pierre Miller (born 2 April 1931) is a famous French-Australian scientist. He made amazing discoveries about our body's defense system, called the immune system. He found out what the thymus organ does. He also identified two main types of special cells, called T cells and B cells, which are super important for fighting off sickness.

Early Life and Education

Growing Up and Moving to Australia

Jacques Miller was born on April 2, 1931, in Nice, France. His birth name was J.F.A.P. Meunier. He spent his childhood in different countries like France, Switzerland, and China, especially in Shanghai.

When World War II started, his family moved to Sydney, Australia, in 1941. They changed their last name to "Miller" to be safer.

School and First Research Experience

In Sydney, Jacques went to St Aloysius' College. There, he met Sir Gustav Nossal, who would later become his colleague.

Miller studied medicine at the University of Sydney. He got his first taste of science research in a lab where he studied how viruses infect the body.

Career and Discoveries

Unlocking the Mystery of the Thymus

In 1958, Miller traveled to the United Kingdom to continue his research. He joined the Chester Beatty Research Institute in London. He decided to study a type of blood cancer called lymphocytic leukemia in mice.

Miller made a huge discovery. He found that mice born without a thymus organ could not fight off infections well. They also couldn't reject foreign tissues. This showed that the thymus is super important for our body's adaptive immune system. Before this, people thought the thymus had no real purpose.

Because of this, many people say Miller is the only living person who first described what a human organ does. In 1963, he continued his work on the thymus at the National Institutes of Health in the United States.

Discovering T Cells and B Cells

In 1966, Miller came back to Australia. He became a research leader at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne. He was invited by his old friend, Sir Gustav Nossal, who was the new director.

There, with a student named Graham Mitchell, he made another groundbreaking discovery. They found that special immune cells, called lymphocytes, could be split into two main groups. These groups were later named T cells and B cells.

They also found that these two cell types work together to make antibodies, which are like tiny shields that fight off germs. Miller also showed that the thymus creates T cells. He also discovered that the thymus helps remove T cells that might attack our own body.

Impact of His Research

Miller's discoveries are vital for understanding many diseases. These include cancer, autoimmunity (when the body attacks itself), and AIDS. His work also helps us understand why bodies reject transplanted organs, how allergies happen, and how we fight viruses.

He was also the first to show that T cells are important for fighting certain tumors. This idea is now a key part of modern cancer immunotherapy, which uses the body's own immune system to fight cancer.

Continuing His Work

Even though he officially semi-retired in 1996, Jacques Miller is still involved in important research about the immune system.

Awards and Honours

Jacques Miller has received many important awards for his amazing scientific work. Here are some of them:

• 1966 Gairdner Foundation International Award
• 1967 Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London
• 1970 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, London
• 1971 Macfarlane Burnet Medal and Lecture of the Australian Academy of Science
• 1974 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize
• 1978 Rabbi Shai Shacknai Memorial Prize
• 1981 Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)
• 1982 Elected Foreign Associate for the United States National Academy of Science
• 1983 International St Vincent Prize; World Health Organization
• 1990 Sandoz Prize for Immunology
• 1990 Peter Medawar Prize for the Transplantation Society
• 1992 Croonian Prize, Royal Society
• 1995 J. Allyn Taylor International Prize in Medicine
• 2000 Florey Medal
• 2001 Royal Society of London Copley Medal
• 2001 Centenary Medal
• 2003 Prime Minister's Prize for Science
• 2003 Appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC)
• 2015 ANZAAS Medal
• 2018 Japan Prize for Medicine and Medicinal Science
• 2019 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research

See also

• French Australians