obituary James L. Gowans 1924–2020

rofessor Sir James Gowans, CBE FRS, from the blood. Rare cells that specifically who died on 1 April 2020, was one of recognize the antigen are sequestered Pthe most distinguished members of a from the circulation and replicate and generation of British immunologists who, differentiate into clones of effector cells between the 1950s and 1970s, established and then memory cells that enter the critical groundwork for modern cellular recirculating pool to form the basis of the immunology. With a series of experiments anamnestic immune response. remarkable for their significance, The importance of Gowans’ work was clarity and technical elegance, Gowans’ quickly recognized. In 1962, at age 39, he achievement was to identify the population became the Royal Society’s Henry Dale of hitherto obscure small lymphocytes Research Professor. In 1963 he was elected as the immunologically competent cells FRS, and the Medical Research Council corresponding to the immunological established the Cellular Immunology Unit repertoire required by Macfarlane Burnet’s for him in the Dunn School, thus securing Clonal Selection Theory. his research program, which attracted James Learmonth Gowans was born talented younger scientists and distinguished in Sheffield in 1924. His family moved to Professor Sir James Gowans, Llanberis Pass, sabbatical visitors who brought the lessons South London when Gowans was 4, where Wales, 23 June 1970. Credit: Simon V. Hunt and from studying purified cell types in vivo to he attended Whitgift School in Croydon. the late Bent Rolstad a number of fields, including immunology, In 1940, after three rejections, he was stem cell biology and cancer. finally accepted into King’s College London In 1977, Gowans left his laboratory Medical School. His father was a talented small lymphocytes was shown by Gowans to become the head of the UK’s Medical medical laboratory technician who endowed to be the embodiment of the Burnetian Research Council (MRC), successfully Gowans with respect for laboratory repertoire. In elegant transfer experiments challenging government policy that applied science, which was enhanced by attending using genetic and chromosome markers, purchaser–provider principles to medical the famous Friday Evening Discourses as well as radioactive labels detected research. Under Gowans, the MRC formally at the Royal Institution, including one by autoradiography, he documented in supported in vitro fertilization despite from Howard Florey on penicillin. After lymph nodes the rapid antigen-dependent controversy, leading to its general acceptance graduating and briefly practicing medicine, stimulation of a fraction of small in law and clinical practice, and helped to Gowans was accepted to undertake a DPhil lymphocytes to become dividing cells and lead UK research and public understanding on antibiotics with Florey at the Sir William showed the transient depletion of that through the dawning AIDS crisis. The Human Dunn School of Pathology in Oxford. reactive specificity from the recirculating Frontiers Science Program was inaugurated Staying on for post-doctoral work, Florey pool. The recirculating pool of small in 1987 in a major Japanese initiative, and, suggested Gowans devote his attention to lymphocytes in adult immunized rats in 1989, Gowans was appointed the first the small lymphocyte problem. could transfer antigen-specific memory to secretary general with offices in Strasbourg. In the 1950s, there was no consensus immunologically inert recipients. Likewise, Gowans continued to hold many about the nature of small lymphocytes. thoracic-duct small lymphocytes from trusteeships and adviserships after It was generally believed that they were donors made immunologically tolerant retiring to his home in Oxford and to his short-lived cells generated in lymph nodes of specific antigens reflected the state of cherished library of Darwiniana in 1995. He and sent out through efferent lymphatics to specific immunological tolerance by failing perpetually sought fresh contacts with young fulfil some unknown function and promptly to transfer specific immune competence scientists and maintained conversations with die. Gowans aimed to understand their life only against those antigens to irradiated long-standing colleagues and friends to the history by devising physiological approaches recipients. Gowans was greatly attracted by end. Among other honors, Gowans received to define their numbers and traffic in vivo the conceptual unity between the Burnetian the Royal Medal of the Royal Society in 1976 and, ultimately, their function. repertoire and the pool of small lymphocytes. and shared the Wolf Prize in Medicine in Gowans’ experiments, published from Burnet had proposed and Gowans had 1980 with Leo Sachs and César Milstein. 1957 onwards, unequivocally demonstrated demonstrated that single-antigen-specific He was knighted in 1982. He is survived by that small lymphocytes belonged to a small lymphocytes were the units of in vivo his wife, Moyra, a son and two daughters. ❐ long-lived pool of non-dividing cells, immune responsiveness and, therefore, must continuously recirculating daily from blood possess clonally committed antigen receptors Jonathan C. Howard 1 ✉ and to efferent lymph through morphologically as detectors of self and non-self. Irving L. Weissman 2 specialized endothelial cells of the These beautifully conceived and executed 1Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Oeiras, Portugal. post-capillary venules in the lymph node experiments, in vivo physiological science at 2Stanford Institute of Stem Cell Biology and cortex, and returning to the venous its very best, revealed the essential cellular Regenerative Medicine, Stanford Medicine, circulation via efferent lymphatics and the basis of the immune response, which is still Stanford University, Stanford, CA, USA. thoracic duct. Following the publication how we understand the immune response ✉e-mail: [email protected] of the Clonal Selection Theory in 1959, in today. Antigen is presented in regional which Macfarlane Burnet cited Gowans’ lymph nodes for inspection by a continuous Published online: 26 May 2020 1957 paper, the recirculating pool of stream of small lymphocytes recirculating https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-020-0696-3

Nature Immunology | VOL 21 | June 2020 | 595 | www.nature.com/natureimmunology 595