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Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet

Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet was born in Australia, Victoria in a town east of the Latrobe Vallery known as Traralgon on September 3, 1899. 

His father was a Manager of the branch of Colonial Bank in Traralgon. He attended schools in Victoria State Schools and later at Geelong College.

Burnet married Edith Linda Druce in 1928. They have one son, Ian, and two daughters, Elizabeth, Mrs. Paul M. Dexter, and Deborah, Mrs. John Giddy.

He completed his medical training at the University of Melbourne in 1922 where he achieved an MB, BS in 1992, and later graduated with a master’s degree in 1923.

Further, he attended the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of the University of Melbourne to do research work.

His research was based on the agglutinin reactions in typhoid fever. At Melbourne Hospital, he served as a pathologist for the period between 1923 to 1924.

He worked for one year at the Lister Institute, London. However, he was awarded the Beit Fellowship for Medical Research in 1926.

In 1932 he spent a year at the National Institute for Medical Research, Hampstead, London. Otherwise, apart from many visits to various countries to give lectures or for other purposes, he has worked continuously at the Hall Institute in Melbourne.

In 1944 he became Director of this Institute and Professor of Experimental Medicine at the University of Melbourne.

It is impossible to give, in a brief space, an adequate idea of the range and fundamental importance of Burnet’s work. His work on the agglutinins of typhoid fever mentioned above was followed by the work on viruses for which he is nowadays justly famous.

1. Research on Virus

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He was a genius in research. In 1935 he made history by isolating a strain of influenza A virus in Australia.

Further, he researched serological variations of the influenza virus and Australian strains of swine influenza. He is also known for many publications on also published papers on variations in the virulence of the influenza virus and on the mutation rates in it, which he calculated.

2. Collaboration with  WIB

In his collaboration in 1946 with W. I. B. Beveridge, Burnet devised a technique for cultivating viruses on the chorioallantoic membrane of chicken embryos. 

Also a method for determining the relative concentration of the material inoculated into these membranes by counting and statistically analyzing the number of lesions that then appear on the membranes.

3. The Receptor-Destroying Enzyme

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In 1947 he discovered, in collaboration with Stone, the receptor-destroying enzyme present in Vibrio cholerae.

The discovery led to the synthesis of neuraminic acid and to the demonstration, by Gottschalk and Cornforth, that purified influenza virus will quantitatively split the acetylgalactosamine neuraminic acid compound.

Later it was shown that this enzyme derived from Vibrio cholerae can prevent infection by influenza to a significant degree.

4. Prevention of Virus Achievements

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Burnet did much other important work on certain aspects of the prevention of virus infections and on important biological aspects of virus growth inside the cells in which they can live.

He found that the filamentous forms of some viruses (e.g. those of myxoviruses such as those which cause influenza, mumps, fowl plague, and Newcastle disease) can be ruptured by suspending them in water.

He suggested that their infectivity is limited to their tips, so that these filamentous forms can, as later work showed, be regarded as having an infective warhead composed of nucleic acid and a long tail composed of non-infective viral haemagglutinin.

5. Outcome Working with Haemagglutinin

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Other aspects of Burnet’s work are his work on the surface properties of these filamentous forms, which are, he found, similar to those of cell surfaces.

His work with the haemagglutinin found in extracts of tissue infected with vaccinia, which can, he found, be precipitated by a saturated solution of ammonium sulphate and by cobra venom.

6.  Genetic Complexity of Virus

He has also added much to our knowledge of the haemagglutination of red blood cells by various animal viruses.

He also made contributions of fundamental importance to our knowledge of the genetic complexity of virus particles. In addition, the genetic interactions between related viruses which simultaneously infect the same cell and their relations to the transfer of neuropathogenic.

7. Complex Details

Additionally, he has increased our knowledge of the inhibition of viruses by various substances, and of the complex details of immunological methods of studying viruses, and of the immunology of viral infections.

8. Recorded Scientific Facts

Burnet has embodied his experience and experimental results, not only in numerous scientific papers but in several books which show that he is a master, not only of a clear and attractive literary style but also of lucid exposition of complex ideas and scientific facts.

9. Honors and Distinctions

Burnet received many honors and distinctions, among which the Fellowship of the Royal Society of London (1942), where he was awarded the Royal Medal in 1947 and the Copley Medal in 1959, and where he delivered the Croonian Lecture in 1950.

10. Graduate of University of Cambridge

He holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge and was made a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1953. He was knighted in 1951, and in 1958 he received the Order of Merit.

In addition to most of his discoveries, it is important to remember that Burnet was a virologist and microbiologist. He made further findings about remarkable viral diseases of the era.

These included influenza, herpes, poliomyelitis, and most importantly Murray Valley Encephalitis (MVE). More importantly, he made discoveries on bacterial diseases which include psittacosis and Q fever.

In addition, his research also included the causative agent of which, Coxiella burnetii, was named in his honor. This was an indication that his contribution to the counterattack solutions for viruses was very helpful to the world of science.

At the outbreak of World War II, Sir Macfarlane Burnet focused the institute’s research program on producing an influenza vaccine, to counter the potential for a repeat of the devastating influenza pandemic in the aftermath of World War I.