| Citation | SPRENT, Jonathan b. 6.8.1941 B.Sc., M.B.B.S. (Brisbane), Ph.D. (Melbourne); Member, the Scripps Research Institute and Adjunct Professor of Biology, University of California, SanDiego.
Distinguished for his contributions to T cell immunology. He discovered that the earliest stage of T cell recognition of antigen in vivo is MHC restricted and involves temporary trapping of circulating naive T cells by antigen-presenting cells (APC). By following the reappearance of antigen-activated T cells in the circulation, he demonstrated that T helper cells engage in MHC-restricted interactions with two classes of cells: 1) specialised APC and 2) antigen specific B cells. With the aid of bone marrow chimeras he made seminal contributions to the paradigm that T cell differentiation in the thymus involves a combination of positive and negative selection. He defined the role of T cell subsets and MHC class I and II antigens in graft-versus-host disease (GVHD) and established the importance of minor histocompatibility antigens as a principal target for lethal GVHD. In other studies, he demonstrated that the pool of recirculating lymphocytes contains B cells as well as T cells, and he defined the migratory properties and lifespan of B cells. He has also made important contributions in the fields of immunological tolerance and memory. |