Cell Death & Differentiation (2020) 27:396–401 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41418-019-0462-y Q&A The early work on the discovery of the function of the thymus, an interview with Jacques Miller Jacques Miller1 Published online: 5 December 2019 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to ADMC Associazione Differenziamento e Morte Cellulare 2019. This article is published with open access This interview is part of a series of articles to mark the 25th anniversary of Cell Death and Differentiation. identified. Here, Cell Death and Differentiation asks Jac- ques Miller about his early work on thymus and T cells. CDD: Could you please describe your personal background, who were your parents, where were you born and what happened in your early years? My father and mother were both born in Paris in 1896. During the first World War (1914–1918), my father, Maurice Meunier, who spoke English fluently, acted as interpreter for the British troops who came to France. In 1919, he married and left with his new wife for China having found a job in a French bank in Peking (now known as Beijing). He spent some 22 years in China and Japan, eventually becoming Manager of the Franco-Chinese Bank in Shanghai. Besides English, he also spoke Spanish flu- ently, and learned Mandarin Chinese which he could write, and also Japanese which he wrote and spoke. In 1930, my mother returned to France by ship for health reasons. Finding that she was pregnant, she decided to have Fig. 1 Jacques (left), Gus Nossal (right) in 1967. In 1966, Gus Nossal the baby in France and so, having been conceived in China, succeeded Sir MacFarlane Burnet as director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research (WEHI) in Melbourne, Australia. I was born in France, in Nice, in April 1931. In 1932, she He invited Jacques Miller (then at the Institute of Cancer Research in went back to China with her three children, Jacqueline, the London) to head a new Laboratory at WEHI in Melbourne, Australia. eldest, Jeanine her second and me. She was back in France in 1935, both for her health and to allow Jacqueline to The thymus was the last major organ to have its function receive what she thought would be a good education at a discovered in 1961. Thymus-derived cells (now known as boarding school. Some months later, when we were just T cells) were shown to mediate immune responses. The about to return to China, Jacqueline was diagnosed with presence of T cells in human cancers showed that they had pulmonary tuberculosis. Because of this, the family decided the potential to destroy tumor cells. More recently, a large to go to Switzerland which, in those days, was the place family of T-cell subsets with different functions have been where tuberculosis could best be managed. We spent 3 years in Vennes-sur-Lausanne, in a beautiful chalet with an unimpeded view of Mt Blanc, and I do remember my sister Jeanine and I playing together with Jacqueline, even when * Jacques Miller she was coughing blood stained sputum. [email protected] In March 1939, my father joined us on a long service 1 The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute, 1G Royal Parade Parkville, leave, but when World War II broke out 6 months later, he Parkville, VIC, Australia was recalled to Shanghai. Believing that Switzerland would Q&A 397 be invaded, he decided that the whole family should return translate Japanese documents as requested. He was also to China. We left Lausanne by car very quickly, crossing active in the war effort for the American forces and he Northern Italy on our way to Trieste, and there managed to helped with the taking in of supplies to New Caledonia. get the last passenger boat out of Italy. Prior to arriving in Australia, Jeanine and I had never been to school. We had teachers at home, wherever we CDD: Tell us about your time in China and how you lived. The last one in Shanghai was a 36-year old Viennese ended up in Australia. with a PhD who had escaped a Nazi prison. Instead of We lived in a spacious house about 30 min by car from learning much from him, we spent our time having great fun Shanghai’s central business district. The Franco-Chinese with him. So, we arrived Australia knowing only a very few bank where my father worked was located in the French words of English! Concession, next to the British Concession. Whenever my Because my father had been impressed by the knowl- mother wanted to go shopping, my father drove us there. I edge, culture and broad mindedness of the Jesuits in did not like the rampant poverty and obvious disease Shanghai, with whom any subject could be discussed, he deformities which plagued many of the Chinese at that time, decided that I should go to a Jesuit college, St Aloysius’ and I was glad not to have to go to school during my College, and Jeanine went to a convent close by. time there. At Aloysius I met and frequented a brilliant young When France capitulated in 1940, the French Conces- Austrian boy, a refugee from Vienna, who was a year ahead sion was automatically taken over by Vichy officials. My of me. His name is Gus Nossal and we became life-long father, who did not accept France’s surrender, rallied to friends. I have followed one year behind in his footsteps the Gaullists and became active politically. He secretly first at school, then at the Sydney Medical School, and smuggled young Frenchmen, who wanted to join the finally at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. British forces, out of the French concession onto British ships leaving for Britain. In 1940, he was actually invited CDD: Could you now describe the background in by the British War Office to join the London Headquarters which you got interested in Medicine and Medical as a link between the French and British Treasury. But in research? December of that year, only a few years before the dis- I had grown up during World War II and had a great covery of streptomycin, Jacqueline died, aged 17. distaste for violence and war. I thought that if such things Because of this, and as these were the months of the blitz happened again, when I reached adulthood, I would prefer to in London, my father finally declined the offer from be in a position to patch up the wounded. I also had another London for the family’s sake. However, it was evident reason. During Jacqueline’s illness, I had overheard con- that he had to leave Shanghai, for he was next on the list versations between the doctor and my mother, when he of Gaullists to be arrested by Vichy officials. He also explained to her what tuberculosis was and how little was knew from his knowledge of Japanese, that Japan would known about how the body resisted infection. That and the enter the war very soon, and that he would be at great risk, fact that neither Jeanine nor I contracted the disease, even as he spoke and wrote their language fluently. Some deal though we had been in close contact with Jacqueline, aroused was made with the British authorities in Shanghai: we my curiosity. I thus decided on a Medical career and, if were given British passports and our surname was trans- possible, follow this in a research setting. lated into English - hence Miller. We left in August 1941, During my medical studies at Sydney University, I was taking the last cargo boat out of Shanghai bound for pleased to interrupt them to do a year’sresearchasaB.Med. Batavia (now known as Jakarta). There we boarded a Science student in the laboratory of Professor de Burgh, again passenger ship and arrived in Sydney on the 25th of following in the footsteps of Gus Nossal. I too was given the September 1941, just less than 3 months before the task of deciphering how ectromelia virus multiplied in liver bombing of Pearl Harbor. cells, but rather than continuing on the line of work that previous B.Med.Science students had performed with normal CDD: Tell us about your early time in Australia and liver, I thought it more interesting to determine whether the your school years. virus might interfere with some crucial biochemical events The Australians in Sydney did not recognize French during liver regeneration after partial hepatectomy. Two banking credentials and would not employ my father on an papers resulted from this work. equal footing. Because of this, he founded, together with another Frenchman, the “Free French Delegation”. It took CDD: How did you end up coming to the United over the activities of the previous consulate, at that time Kingdom? defunct since Australia did not recognize Vichy. He offered After receiving my medical degree and doing a year as his services to the Australian Government, and in fact did a junior medical resident in Hospital, followed by another 398 J. Miller year in the Pathology Department of Sydney University, I once or twice every week to bring mail and whatever sup- applied for what was called a Gaggin Research Fellow- plies were required. Even though I was given only a small ship, advertised in the Medical Journal of Australia. It was shack and a small amount of space in one of the converted given by the University of Queensland, and offered a horse stables, it was a delight to work in such pleasant return fare to the United Kingdom and a salary for 2 years surroundings, away from the crowd, the noise, and the in a Research Institute of the candidate’sownchoosing.I pollution of greater London.