Jacques Miller facts for kids

Jacques Francis Albert Pierre Miller is a famous French-Australian scientist. He was born on April 2, 1931. He is known for two very important discoveries about our bodies. First, he found out what the thymus organ does. Before him, no one knew its job! Second, he identified two main types of special cells in our immune system, called T cells and B cells. These cells are super important for fighting off sickness.

Early Life and Moving to Australia

Jacques Miller was born in Nice, France. His original last name was Meunier. He grew up in different countries like France, Switzerland, and China, spending a lot of time in Shanghai.

When World War II started, his family moved to Sydney, Australia, in 1941. They changed their last name to "Miller." Jacques went to St Aloysius' College in Sydney. There, he met another future famous scientist, Sir Gustav Nossal.

Later, Jacques Miller studied medicine at the University of Sydney. This is where he first started doing research in a lab, studying how viruses infect the body.

Discovering the Thymus's Secret

In 1958, Miller went 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.

During his research, Miller made a huge discovery! He found that mice born without a thymus could not fight off infections well. They also couldn't reject foreign tissues, like when doctors try to move tissue from one body to another. This showed that the thymus is super important for our body's defense system, called the adaptive immune system. Before Miller's work, many scientists thought the thymus was a useless organ.

Because of this amazing discovery, many people say Jacques Miller is the only living person who found out what a human organ does for the very first time! In 1963, he continued his work on the thymus at the National Institutes of Health in the United States.

Finding T Cells and B Cells

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

There, with a student named Graham Mitchell, Miller made another big discovery. They found that the special cells in our immune system, 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 types of cells work together to make antibodies, which are like tiny shields that fight off germs. This teamwork is called "T cell help."

Miller continued to learn more about these cells. He showed that the thymus is where T cells are made. He also found that the thymus helps remove T cells that might attack our own body, which is important for preventing diseases where the immune system attacks itself (autoimmunity).

These discoveries by Miller are very important for understanding many diseases. This includes diseases like cancer, autoimmunity, and AIDS. They also help us understand why bodies sometimes reject new organs after a transplant. His work also helps explain allergies and how our bodies fight viruses. Miller was also the first to show that T cells are important for fighting certain tumors. This idea is now a big part of modern cancer immunotherapy, which uses the body's own immune system to fight cancer.

Even though he officially retired in 1996, Jacques Miller is still involved in immunology research today. He also has a strong interest in art and has even shown his artwork in Melbourne.

Awards and Honours

Jacques Miller has received many important awards for his groundbreaking work. Some of these include:

• 1966 Gairdner Foundation International Award
• 1970 Elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, London
• 1974 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize
• 1981 Officer of the Order of Australia (AO)
• 1990 Sandoz Prize for Immunology
• 2001 Royal Society of London Copley Medal
• 2003 Prime Minister's Prize for Science
• 2003 Appointed a Companion of the Order of Australia (AC)
• 2018 Japan Prize for Medicine and Medicinal Science
• 2019 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research

See also

• French Australians