Germs, Hosts, and the Origin of Frank Macfarlane Burnet's Concept of "Self" and "Tolerance," 1936-1949

Hyung Wook Park
Program in the History of Science, University of Minnesota

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     Last modified: June 15, 2005
     Presentation date: 07/16/2005 2:00 PM in ROZH 107
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Abstract
In the early twentieth century, the living organism's ability to distinguish its "self" from foreign entities such as bacteria, viruses, transplanted tissue, or transfused blood was a major problem in biological sciences. This paper discusses how the Australian immunologist Frank Macfarlane Burnet arrived at a satisfactory explanation of this problem through his 1949 theory of "self" and "tolerance." Burnet's theoretical work began from his study of diverse factors affecting the conditions of the host and the germ for the occurrence of infectious diseases, among which the host's age received the most attention as a crucial factor. His understanding was facilitated by his acceptance of the cytoplasm inheritance theory, which emphasized the importance of the embryonic host’s changing conditions according to its age. This work led Burnet to claim in 1949 that the "self" of the organism was defined during its development, and Peter Medawar's demonstration of this claim became the basis for awarding them the Nobel Prize in 1960. In contrast to previous histories that attempted to explain Burnet's conception of "self" and "tolerance" by emphasizing his "inductive reasoning" or "ecological perspective," this paper finds the origin of Burnet's ideas within the broader biomedical issues of the 1930s and 1940s, especially studies of the host body and its relationship with parasites, which emerged as a critical problem with the development of germ theories.

A Part of the Session, "Perspectives in Immunology," organized by Melinda Fagan and Jolio Tuma

Key words: Frank Macfarlane Burnet, self, tolerance, host, germ, age, cytoplasmic inheritance

Multiple Paper Session:
Other papers in this session:
Shared goals and interdisciplinary interactions in contemporary immunology
Developmental Sequestration, Variation, and the Vertebrate Immune System
From an Immunological Point of View: the Move From ‘Self’ towards Interactionism to Define Biological Identity