MacFarlane Burnet etc (1 Viewer)

[.ben]

Do we need to know abt this guy? It doesn't really say in the syllabus...

 

[ryanox]

yes pretty sure u do buddy. he comes under all the crap bout immunisations and how the body can distinguish between "self" and "non-self"

 

[Petinga]

Well u dont need to know much about him just really that he contributed to our understanding of diseases through vaccinations and the understanding of the B and T cell responses to antigens.

Can anyone post up a general paragraph describing the importance of MacFarlane Burnett to our understanding of disease

 

[Dr_Doom]

Heinemann:
He examined how the body recognises itself and is able to use its immune system to respond to foreign substances, such as viruses, without invading its own cells in the process. he concluded that the ability to recognise self-substances cannot be inherited, but is gradually acquired in the course of fetal development. Due to constant contact with cells in the body at an early age, the develping immunity-producing tissue learns to recognise and remember its own pattern. Burnet predicted that if tissue from another body were introduced to a feotus at the right time, it would learn not to reject this foreign tissue.
By 1960 Burnet had also developed the clonal selection theory. This important theory has helped us to better understand the immune system and how our bodies learn to distinguish between self and non-self.

 

[ugly14]

in summary:

Burnet explained how the body's immune system recognizes and attacks foreign invaders, such as viruses and bacteria, but ignores the body's own tissue. he clarified how the immune system is able to distinguish “self” from “non-self” tissue.

 

[Dr_Doom]

in summary:

Found how body distinquishes from non-self and self cells and attacks non-self invaders like viruses and bacteria.

 

[ugly14]

in summary:

Found how body distinquishes from non-self and self cells and attacks non-self invaders like viruses and bacteria.

hahahaa....just keep summarising the summaries till it gets to a few words long!
but no offence or anything..i find that my summary makes more sense (may be im a little biased)

anyway, u seem smart and u're really good at biology from ur posts..so goodluck for the bio exam 2morrow! wish u all the best.

 

[Dr_Doom]

haha thanks you too xD

 

[i_like_tool]

so you probably don't still need the answer to this as it was ages ago but meh! I think the keywords you might need to mention are "Clonal Selection Theory (of antibody production)" - There are millions of different kinds of B cells in the body and when and antigen comes into contact with the one that can destroy it, the B cell divides and differentiate into either plasma cells which can produce antibodies against the antigen, or memory cells which remember the antigen.
He's pretty important in immunology and he did get a Nobel Prize in 1960...

 

[Mind-of-mysterY]

i didnt know anything about MacFarlane Burnet...but it was in my trial...so im definantly going to work on it!

 

[somewhereelse]

well its not actually a point in the syllabus, just a heading.. so i guess aslong as you know that he was involved in studying the immune system, then you can rule 'burnet' out of a mutliguess question along the lines of 'which scientists did etc.'

he was an aussie, and won a nobel prize in 1960 'for discovery of acquired immunological tolerance' (thats from the nobel site!)

so im guessing, the stuff about how some b cells become memory cells is due to burnet.