Rupert E. Billingham facts for kids

Rupert Everett Billingham (born October 15, 1921 – died November 16, 2002) was a British scientist. He was a biologist who studied how the body's defense system works. He focused on how the body accepts or rejects new organs. He also studied how a baby can grow safely inside its mother.

Early Life and Education

Rupert Billingham was born in Warminster, a town in Wiltshire, England. His father was a dairy farmer. Rupert went to Oriel College, Oxford to study zoology. This is the study of animals.

War Service and Return to Studies

His studies were paused because of World War II. He joined the Royal Navy and worked on anti-submarine ships. After the war, in 1946, he went back to University of Oxford. He became a research student for a famous scientist named Peter Medawar.

Skin Graft Research

For his PhD, Rupert Billingham studied skin grafts in guinea pigs. A skin graft is when skin is moved from one part of the body to another. He found that if black skin was put onto white skin, the white skin would turn black. At first, they thought a special agent was spreading. Later, they learned it was because cells were moving.

Important Discoveries

In 1947, Peter Medawar moved to the University of Birmingham. Rupert Billingham continued to work with him on organ transplantation. In 1951, they both moved to University College London.

Immune Tolerance

Together, they made a very important discovery. They showed how the body can learn to accept foreign cells. This idea is called immune tolerance. It means the body's immune system does not attack something it normally would. Another scientist, Frank Macfarlane Burnet, had suggested this idea. For this important work, Burnet and Medawar won the Nobel Prize in 1960.

Graft-Versus-Host Disease

Billingham and Medawar also studied something called graft-versus-host disease. This happens when the new cells in a transplant attack the patient's body. Their research helped doctors understand how to prevent this.

Life in the United States

In 1951, Rupert Billingham got married to Jean Billingham. They had three children together. In 1957, he moved to the United States. He started working at the Wistar Institute.

Academic Career in the U.S.

In 1965, he became the head of the Human Genetics Department at the University of Pennsylvania. That same year, he was chosen as a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. In 1971, he moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

Later Life

Rupert Billingham passed away in Boston at the age of 81. He had been ill for a long time with Parkinson's disease. His work greatly helped our understanding of how the immune system works. It also helped make organ transplants safer.