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Nobel Laureate Professor Peter Doherty delivered the Ceppellini Lecture at the opening ceremony of the European Federation of Immunogenetics (EFI) annual conference last week in the Netherlands, speaking on the topic Surveillance of Self.

Professor Doherty was chosen to deliver the lecture in recognition of the significant contribution his research has made to understanding of the role of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules in infectious disease, inflammatory disease, cancer and course transplantation.

Professor Doherty is the 33rd recipient of the Ceppellini Lecture award and accepted the award in person from EFI committee member Dr Rhonda Holdsworth, Director of Transplantation and Immunogenetics Services, Australian Red Cross Lifeblood.

The annual EFI scientific conference, which attracts up to 1,000 delegates from around the world, offers plenary and teaching sessions, and a notable scientist is awarded the honor of delivering the the Ceppellini Lecture.

The EFI was established in 1985 to support the development of immunogenetics in Europe as a discipline in medicine, and to promote research and training in this field.

Since then, the EFI has developed standards for histocompatibility and immunogenetics testing and an accreditation program for laboratories supporting the clinical application of histocompatibility and immunogenetics.

The Ceppellini Lecture is named after Ruggero Ceppellini, an Italian geneticist who made contributions to our understanding of the genetics of human blood groups, immunoglobulins and the human leukocyte antigen (HLA) system.

Ruggero Ceppellini was also an organiser of the 3rd international histocompatibility testing workshop in Turin, in 1967, which focused on analyses of serological reactions within families and demonstrated the co-inheritance of HLA types in haplotypes, a term introduced by Ceppellini and widely used by geneticists today.