SIR MACFARLANE BURNET, AT 85; WON NOBEL FOR MEDICINE IN '60

Author: Associated Press

Date: Tuesday, September 3, 1985
Page: 63
Section: OBITUARY

Sir MacFarlane, who died Saturday, was born Frank MacFarlane Burnet in Traralgon, eastern Victoria, the second of six children.

He won the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1960 for his work in immunology.

Sir MacFarlane studied the nature of antibody formation and immune processes and developed the notion of immunological tolerance to explain why humans do not form antibodies to their own bodily constituents. He also wrote about how mistakes of the immune system might cause obscure forms of blood, liver and kidney disease.

From the early 1930s to the late 1950s, Sir MacFarlane was a leader in the science of virology, pioneering the use of fertile hen's eggs as hosts for virus multiplication. He developed concepts that are part of the basis for current theories about viruses as cancer-causing agents.

At age 14, Sir MacFarlane went to Geelong College, and won a residential scholarship to Melbourne University's Ormond College. He graduated second in his class.

Sir MacFarlane was assistant director at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, 1928-1944, and director, 1944-65. The director's post carried with it a chair in experimental medicine at the University of Melbourne.

He was knighted by the British monarch in 1951.

Sir MacFarlane leaves his wife, the former Hazel Jenkin, two daughters, a son and eight grandchildren.

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