| Arrangement | This collection has been arranged as follows:
1. Research of Brigitte 'Ita' Askonas, containing research files, scientific notebooks belonging to Askonas, index cards, notebooks belonging to colleagues of Askonas, and a copy of her PhD thesis.
2. Papers relating to the National Institute of Medical Research, Division of Immunology, Mill Hill.
This arrangement reflects the original order which the collections arrived in and mirrors the arrangement of the other personal papers collections received by the Royal Society at the same time from the same source. |
| AdminHistory | Brigitte Askonas, widely known as Ita, was born in Vienna in 1923 and educated at the McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where she studied Bio-Chemistry (BSc & MSc). Askonas moved to England in the late 1940s to undertake a PhD in biochemistry at Cambridge University, School of Biochemistry.
The majority of Askonas' career was spent on the staff at the National Institute of Medical Research at Mill Hill where, with a background in Bio-Chemistry, she became a leading figure in the field of immunology. The NIMR was formed in 1913 and moved to Mill Hill Laboratory in 1950. Askonas joined the institute in 1952 and became one of the founding members of the Division of Immunology. In 1973 Askonas was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in recognition of her contribution to the work of immunology and in 1976 she became head of the Division of Immunology at Mill Hill.
Askonas' research centred on antibodies and their functions; she studied antibodies found in goat's milk while at Cambridge University. Once she'd moved to Mill Hill her research encompassed work on; antibody synthesis, she showed that antibody cells exist in bone marrow and lung tissue, not just lymph tissue; memory B cells, Askonas discovered the role of B and T cells in the immune system; and the role of macrophages. |