MARTIN, Tenn. – Dr. Peter Doherty, the 1996 winner of the Nobel Prize for medicine, will be the final speaker in the 1999-2000 Academic Speakers’ Program at the University of Tennessee at Martin.
Doherty will deliver his lecture titled, -How We Deal with Virus Infections, – at 7:30 p.m., Monday, April 24, in the Boling University Center Auditorium on campus. This lecture is free and open to the public.
Doherty and his colleague, Dr. Rolf Zinkernagel, received the Nobel Prize for their work explaining how a key branch of the immune system is activated and targets cells for destruction.
In 1995, Doherty and Zinkernagel also received the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award for this same work. Doherty’s research has radically advanced the field of cellular immunology. His work on T-cell initiation of an immune response led to an improved understanding of viral immunity, graft rejection, organ transplantation and vaccine design.
Doherty holds degrees from the University of Queensland, Australia; University of Edinburgh, Scotland; and Australia National University. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences. He is currently serving as chair of the department of immunology at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis. He also is adjunct professor in the department of pathology and pediatrics, University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
The Academic Speakers Program annually brings distinguished scholars, writers and performers to the UT Martin campus.