(Nicholas) Avrion Mitchison (born 5 May 1928) is a British

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the animal kingdom, including the structure, embryology, evolution, classification, habits, and d ...

and immunologist.

Biography

Mitchison was born in 1928, the son of the Labour politician

Dick Mitchison Gilbert Richard Mitchison, Baron Mitchison, (23 March 1894 – 14 February 1970) was a British Labour politician. Born in Staines, Mitchison was educated at Eton College and New College, Oxford, and became a barrister ( called to the bar in 1 ...

(Baron Mitchison of Carradale in the County of Argyll, who died 1970) and his wife, the writer Naomi (née Haldane). His uncle was the biologist

J.B.S. Haldane John Burdon Sanderson Haldane (; 5 November 18921 December 1964), nicknamed "Jack" or "JBS", was a British-Indian scientist who worked in physiology, genetics, evolutionary biology, and mathematics. With innovative use of statistics in biolog ...

and his grandfather the physiologist

John Scott Haldane John Scott Haldane (; 2 May 1860 – 14/15 March 1936) was a British physician and physiologist famous for intrepid self-experimentation which led to many important discoveries about the human body and the nature of gases. He also experimen ...

. His elder brothers are the bacteriologist Denis Mitchison and the zoologist

Murdoch Mitchison The Honounorable John Murdoch Mitchison FRS, FRSE (11 June 1922, Oxford – 17 March 2011, Edinburgh) was a British zoologist. Background Family Mitchison was the son of the Labour politician Dick Mitchison and his wife, the writer Naomi ...

. His son is the cell biologist

Tim Mitchison Timothy John Mitchison is a cell biologist and systems biologist and Hasib Sabbagh Professor of Systems Biology at Harvard Medical School in the United States. He is known for his discovery, with Marc Kirschner, of dynamic instability in microt ...

. He is married to Lorna Margaret Martin, daughter of Maj-Gen John Simson Stuart Martin, CSI. They have five children, Tim, Matthew, Mary, Hannah and Ellen. Two are cell biologists

and Hannah M. Mitchison. He was educated at

Leighton Park School Leighton Park School is a co-educational independent school for both day and boarding pupils in Reading in South East England. The school's ethos is closely tied to the Quaker values, having been founded as a Quaker School in 1890. The school's ...

and secured a Classics scholarship to

Balliol College Balliol College () is one of the constituent colleges of the University of Oxford in England. One of Oxford's oldest colleges, it was founded around 1263 by John I de Balliol, a landowner from Barnard Castle in County Durham, who provided the ...

. He received his

DPhil A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

at New College, Oxford with Nobelist Sir

Peter Medawar Sir Peter Brian Medawar (; 28 February 1915 – 2 October 1987) was a Brazilian-British biologist and writer, whose works on graft rejection and the discovery of acquired immune tolerance have been fundamental to the medical practice of tissu ...

. This was followed by a long career as Professor of Zoology at

University College London , mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward , established = , type = Public research university , endowment = £143 million (2020) , budget = ...

, where his uncle

taught, at the National Institute of Medical Research at Mill Hill and as founding Director of the German Rheumatism Research Center Berlin (DRFZ) in Germany. He is currently a Professor Emeritus at University College London. Mitchison's contributions to immunology include the discovery of both low dose and high dose tolerance for a single antigen, a surprising result in the context of basic

clonal selection theory In immunology, clonal selection theory explains the functions of cells of the immune system (lymphocytes) in response to specific antigens invading the body. The concept was introduced by Australian doctor Frank Macfarlane Burnet in 1957, in an ...

, but which can be understood in the context of

immune network theory The immune network theory is a theory of how the adaptive immune system works, that has been developed since 1974 mainly by Niels Jerne and Geoffrey W. Hoffmann. The theory states that the immune system is an interacting network of lymphocytes and m ...

. He was also a founder member of the

British Society for Immunology The British Society for Immunology, or BSI, is a UK-based organisation of British immunologists but accepts members from all countries. It was founded in November 1956 by John H. Humphrey, Robin Coombs, Bob White, and Avrion Mitchison and is on ...

alongside

John H. Humphrey John Herbert Humphrey Order of the British Empire#Commander, CBE Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, FRCP (16 December 1915 – 25 December 1987) was a UK, British bacteriologist and immunologist. Education ...

, Bob White, and Robin Coombs.

Research

Mitchison discovered the transference of transplantation

immunity Immunity may refer to: Medicine * Immunity (medical), resistance of an organism to infection or disease * ''Immunity'' (journal), a scientific journal published by Cell Press Biology * Immune system Engineering * Radiofrequence immunity desc ...

by sensitised

cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life Cell may also refer to: Locations * Monastic cell, a small room, hut, or cave in which a religious recluse lives, alternatively the small precursor of a monastery ...

s, thereby providing evidence relating transplantation immunity to

hypersensitivity Hypersensitivity (also called hypersensitivity reaction or intolerance) refers to undesirable reactions produced by the normal immune system, including allergies and autoimmunity. They are usually referred to as an over-reaction of the immune ...

reactions of the 'delayed' type. He devised a method for revealing mixtures of cells of different genotypes

in vivo Studies that are ''in vivo'' (Latin for "within the living"; often not italicized in English) are those in which the effects of various biological entities are tested on whole, living organisms or cells, usually animals, including humans, and ...

and used it to be equal first in demonstrating that the 'radiation recovery factor' is a

graft Graft or grafting may refer to: *Graft (politics), a form of political corruption * Graft, Netherlands, a village in the municipality of Graft-De Rijp Science and technology *Graft (surgery), a surgical procedure *Grafting, the joining of plant t ...

of living cells and not a humoral agent. He carried out the most exact quantitative analysis of tolerance hitherto attempted in a cellular system and proved that persistence of tolerance depends on persistence of

antigen In immunology, an antigen (Ag) is a molecule or molecular structure or any foreign particulate matter or a pollen grain that can bind to a specific antibody or T-cell receptor. The presence of antigens in the body may trigger an immune respons ...

Awards and honours

Mitchison was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1967. One or more of the preceding sentences may incorporate text from the royalsociety.org website where "all text published under the heading 'Biography' on Fellow profile pages is available under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License." He is also a foreign member of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. He holds an Honorary Doctorate from the

Weizmann Institute The Weizmann Institute of Science ( he, מכון ויצמן למדע ''Machon Vaitzman LeMada'') is a public research university in Rehovot, Israel, established in 1934, 14 years before the State of Israel. It differs from other Israeli univ ...

and in 1995 was awarded the

Novartis Prize for Basic Immunology The Novartis Prizes for Immunology were established in 1990 by Sandoz to honour outstanding research in immunology, and expanded to their current form in 1992. Prizes for basic and clinical immunology are awarded every 3 years. A special prize was ...

Avrion Mitchison Prize for Rheumatology

In honor of its Founding Director, the Deutsches Rheuma-Forschungszentrum Berlin (DRFZ), a Leibniz Institute, annually awards the Avrion Mitchison Prize to young scientists contributing significantly to understanding and treating rheumatic diseases. Donated by the Ernst Schering Foundation until 2018, the prize is now awarded by the DRFZ. The prize money is 3.000 Euros.

References

External links

*
Avrion Mitchison Prize of the DRFZ Berlin
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mitchison, Nicholas Avrion 1928 births Living people British zoologists British immunologists Fellows of the Royal Society People educated at Leighton Park School Alumni of New College, Oxford Academics of University College London Younger sons of barons Presidents of the Zoological Society of London Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences Foreign Fellows of the Indian National Science Academy Jodrell Professors of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy