| RefNo | EC/1991/25 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Newsom-Davis, John Michael: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Date | 1986 |
| Description | Citation typed |
| Citation | Professor Newsom-Davis has carried out distinguished work on the pathogenesis and treatment of myasthenia gravis. Following the early observations of the Royal Postgraduate Medical School that removal of antibody by intensive plasma exchange could induce improvement in patients with specific forms of nephritis, Newsom-Davis used the same approach for the treatment of myasthenia gravis and this proved successful in inducing short remissions. These observations, which demonstrated directly that an antibody is involved is the pathogenesis of myasthenia, led Newsom-Davis and his colleagues to carry out a series of detailed studies of these antibodies which were found to be directed at the acetylcholine receptor. His group went on to characterise these antibodies and to show that they are formed in the thymus in response to antigenic stimulation by thymic cells. More recently Newsom-Davis has extended these studies to other auto-immune muscle diseases such as the Easton Lambert syndrome. His extensive analysis of myasthenia and related diseases have established these conditions as prototype autoimmune conditions, and hence his work has wide implications right across human biology. |
| AccessStatus | Closed |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA4622 | Newsom-Davis; John Michael (1932 - 2007) | 1932 - 2007 |