Definition

1. Proper noun:
   • Sir Peter Brian Medawar: A British immunologist, born in Brazil, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1960. His groundbreaking research focused on tissue transplantation and the biological mechanisms of graft rejection, which he identified as an immune response.

Usage Examples

• Proper noun:
  • The discoveries of Sir Peter Brian Medawar laid the foundation for modern transplant surgery.
  • Sir Peter Brian Medawar shared the 1960 Nobel Prize with Sir Macfarlane Burnet for the discovery of acquired immunological tolerance.

Advanced Usage

• The name Medawar is often used metonymically in academic and scientific contexts to refer to the principles of transplantation immunology he helped establish.
  • The Medawar paradigm fundamentally changed our understanding of how the body distinguishes self from non-self.

Variants and Related Words

• Medawarian (adj): Pertaining to the work or theories of Peter Medawar.
  • A Medawarian approach to the problem of tissue rejection.

Synonyms

• Peter Medawar (the common shortened form)
• Sir Peter Medawar

Related Phrases

• Medawar's paradox: A concept in the biology of aging, referring to the declining force of natural selection with age.
• Acquired immunological tolerance: The central discovery for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize, describing how the immune system can be conditioned to accept foreign tissues.

Noun

1. British immunologist (born in Brazil) who studied tissue transplants and discovered that the rejection of grafts was an immune response (1915-1987)