MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London

Science for Health

Scientific achievements

Some of the achievements at the MRC National Institute for Medical Research include:

the discovery of human influenza virus (Andrewes, Smith and Laidlaw, 1933)
the discovery of the neurotransmitter, acetylcholine, for which the Director, Sir Henry Dale received the Nobel Prize in 1936
the discovery of interferon (A. Isaacs, 1957)
the development of liquid and gas chromatography (A.J.P.MArtin, Nobel Prize for Chemistry, 1952)
the discovery that lymphocytes of different types co-operate in the immune system (N.A.Mitchison, 1967)
the elucidation of the structure of the influenza virus haemagglutinin glycoprotein (D.C.Wiley, I.A.Wilson, J.J.Skehel, 1991, Louis Jeantet Prize de Medecine 1988)
the discovery of interleukin 5 (C.Sanderson, 1985)
the description of a novel mechanism of protein synthesis in mycobacteria (J.Colston, E.Davis, S.Sedgwick, 1992)
the discovery of the sex determining gene (R.Lovell-Badge and P.Goodfellow, 1991, Louis Jeantet Prize de Medecine 1995)
the discovery of the first virus ion channel (A.J.Hay, 1990)
the discovery that a Locus Control Region is capable of preventing position effect variegation in T-cell development (R.Festenstein & D.Kioussis, 1996)