In this biography
Quick facts
- Born
- 1915
- Died
- 1987
- Birthplace
- Rio de Janeiro state, Brazil
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Nationality
- Not independently established
- Known for
- Acquired immunological tolerance
Why this life matters
His studies moved graft rejection from a clinical observation into experimental immunology.
Timeline
Key moments
Wartime graft study
Thomas Gibson and Medawar study skin grafts.
Tolerance paper
Billingham, Brent and Medawar report an experimental result.
Nobel Prize
The award recognizes acquired immunological tolerance.
Growth, injury and an experimental question
Medawar was born in Brazil and educated in England. He studied zoology at Oxford and worked on growth and tissue culture in the universityโs pathology school. The early projects trained him to ask how a biological change could be measured over time. During the Second World War, a question from burn care redirected that interest toward the survival of skin transferred between individuals.
A second graft tells a different story
In a 1943 study with surgeon Thomas Gibson, skin from a different person was rejected after a delay. A later graft from the same donor met a faster response. That change in timing gave researchers a reason to look beyond surgical failure or general tissue fragility. Work in rabbits subsequently allowed the course of rejection and the affected tissues to be examined in more detail.
Sources for this section: [2]
The London tolerance team
Studies with Rupert Billingham on cattle prompted questions about why some tissue could be accepted. At University College London, Billingham, Leslie Brent and Medawar tested whether an early encounter with donor cells could alter later acceptance of donor skin. Their 1953 paper reports a collaboration whose argument depended on a comparison with an unrelated donor strain. Medawar and Macfarlane Burnet shared the 1960 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Research after illness
After a severe stroke in 1969, Medawar continued scientific work at Northwick Park and reached a wider audience through books about research. Jean Medawar coauthored two of his later books. His experimental legacy and his public writing reward different kinds of reading: one asks which control makes a result interpretable, while the other follows how a scientist frames and revises a question.
Sources for this section: [2]
Quick answers
Frequently asked questions about Peter Medawar
- Who wrote the 1953 tolerance paper?
- Rupert Billingham, Leslie Brent and Peter Medawar were the three authors.
Keep exploring
Lives connected to this story
- Macfarlane Burnet
Read the immunologist who shared the 1960 prize.
- Ralph Steinman
Compare later work on different questions in immune recognition.
- Joseph E. Murray
Add a contextual research comparison where the existing article discusses kidney-transplant history.
- E. Donnall Thomas
Add a contextual research comparison where the existing article discusses marrow transplantation.
- Anne McLaren
Investigating mammalian development, including the 1958 embryo-culture and live-birth work with John Biggers
Sources and further reading
Explore the evidence
These references support the biography and offer further reading. Official records, first-person accounts and independent reporting provide different perspectives; image records document attribution and licensing.
- 1. Nobel FoundationPeter Medawar: Biographical
Award-era biography; use the obituary for the later career.
- 2. Royal College of Physicians historical obituarySir Peter Brian Medawar
- 3. Billingham, Brent and Medawar, Nature, 1953Actively Acquired Tolerance of Foreign Cells
- 4. Nobel AssemblyScientific Background to the 2025 Medicine Prize
