Jacques Miller

Jacques Francis Albert Pierre Miller
Born	2 April 1931 Nice
Citizenship	Australia
Alma mater	University of Sydney
Known for	discoveries of the function of the thymus and the T cell and B cell subsets of mammalian lymphocytes

Jacques Francis Albert Pierre Miller AC FRS (born 2 April 1931) is a distinguished research scientist. He is famous for having discovered the function of the thymus and for the identification, in mammalian species of the two major subsets of lymphocytes (T cells and B cells) and their function.

Early life

Miller was born on 2 April 1931, in Nice, France, as J.F.A.P. Meunier, and grew up in France, Switzerland and China, mostly in Shanghai. After the outbreak of World War II, in anticipation of Japan's entry into the war, his family moved in 1941 to Sydney, Australia, and changed their last name to "Miller". He was educated at St Aloysius' College in Sydney, where he met his future colleague, Sir Gustav Nossal.

Scientific career

Miller studied medicine at the University of Sydney, and had his first experience of laboratory research in the laboratory of Professor Patrick de Burgh where he studied virus infection.

In 1958, Miller travelled to the United Kingdom on a Gaggin Research Fellowship from the University of Queensland. He was accepted to the Chester Beatty Research Institute of Cancer Research (part of the Institute of Cancer Research, London) and as a PhD student at the University of London. Miller chose to study the pathogenesis of lymphocytic leukemia in mice, expanding on the research of Ludwik Gross into murine leukemia virus. Miller showed that experimental animals without a thymus at birth were incapable of rejecting foreign tissues and resisting many infections, thus demonstrating that the thymus is vital for development and function of the adaptive immune system. Prior to this, the thymus was believed to be a vestigial organ with no function. His discovery has led many to describe Miller as the "world's only living person who can claim to have been the first to have described the functions of a human organ". . In 1963, Miller continued his work into the function of the thymus at the National Institutes of Health.

In 1966, Miller returned to Australia to become a research group leader at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, at the invitation of its new director Sir Gustav Nossal, the successor of Sir Macfarlane Burnet. There, with student Graham Mitchell, he discovered that mammalian lymphocytes can be separated into what were later called T cells and B cells, and that these interact to allow normal antibody production (T cell help). Miller went on to show that the thymus produces the T cells, that it removes autoreactive T cells (central T cell tolerance) and several other landmark findings in immunology. These are considered crucial to understanding diseases such as cancer, autoimmunity and AIDS, as well as processes such as transplant rejection, allergy and antiviral immunity.

Miller has been semi-retired since 1996, but is still involved in immunological research.

Other interests

Miller has had a longstanding interest in art, and studied art in the 1980s. His art has been exhibited at venues in Melbourne.

Awards and Honours

• 1966 Gairdner Foundation International Award
• 1967 Scientific Medal of the Zoological Society of London
• 1974 Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize
• 1978 Rabbi Shai Shacknai Memorial Prize
• 1982 Elected Foreign Associate for the United States National Academy of Science
• 1983 International St Vincent Prize; World Health Organization
• 1990 Sandoz Prize for Immunology
• 1990 Peter Medawar Prize for the Transplantation Society
• 1992 Croonian Prize, Royal Society
• J Alwyn Taylor International Prize for Medicine
• 2001 Royal Society of London Copley Medal
• 2003 Prime Minister's Prize for Science: Professor Jacques Miller, The Modern 'Father' of Immunology
• 2003 Companion of the Order of Australia (AC).

External Links

• Celebrating a scientific breakthrough - Interview with Miller on The Health Report ABC Radio National (September 2011)
• Institute hosts quintuple anniversary to celebrate science legends - Walter and Eliza Hall Institute media release to celebrate events including the 50th anniversary of the discovery of the function of the thymus and Miller's 80th birthday (June 2011)
• WEHI Revisited - Walter and Eliza Hall Institute audio of interviews with Miller and other institute alumni (accessed September 2011)
• Miller JF. Immunological function of the thymus. Lancet. 1961 Sep 30;2:748-9.
• Miller JF. The thymus and the development of immunologic responsiveness. Science. 1964 Jun 26;144:1544-51.
• Miller JF, Mitchell GF. The thymus and the precursors of antigen reactive cells. Nature. 1967 Nov 18;216(5116):659-63.
• Miller JF, Sprent J. Cell-to-cell interaction in the immune response. VI. Contribution of thymus-derived cells and antibody-forming cell precursors to immunological memory. J Exp Med. 1971 Jul 1;134(1):66-82.

• Jacques Miller - Authentic Australian Art website