University Times

Philippa Marrack has been awarded the University of Pittsburgh 1995-96 Dickson Prize in Medicine for her seminal contributions to immunology.

She is an investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute, National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine in Denver, and a professor at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.

Marrack has studied T cells for more than 20 years and has contributed to understanding why some T cells normally die early, how T cells work with neighboring cells to defend the body against disease and why T cells sometimes ravage the body by mistake. She has worked with others to learn how T cells help another type of immune cell, the B cell, to produce antibodies against invading microbes.

The Dickson Prize in Medicine, as well as the Dickson Prize in Science awarded by Carnegie Mellon, were established in 1969 by the estates of Joseph Z. and Agnes Fischer Dickson to honor persons who have made significant, progressive contributions to medicine and science.