Lloyd J. Old

Who was Lloyd J. Old?

Lloyd John Old was internationally recognized as one of the founders and standard-bearers of the field of cancer immunology. When Old began his career in 1958, tumor immunology was in its infancy. Today, cancer immunotherapies are emerging as a significant advance in cancer therapy. Many of the seminal findings in the field that have led to this evolution have been contributed by Old, his students, and his colleagues.

Old’s contributions to research over the past five decades established many of the principles and priorities of modern tumor immunology. In earlier work, he and his colleagues introduced Bacillus Calmette-Guérin to tumor immunotherapy; discovered the first link between the major histocompatibility complex and disease; found the unexpected association between Epstein-Barr virus and nasopharyngeal carcinoma; discovered tumor necrosis factor; defined the concept of cell-surface differentiation antigens with the discovery of TL, Lyt, and a range of other mouse antigenic systems; discovered p53, independently with two other groups; and identified the tumor immunogenicity of heat shock proteins. Old is the author or co-author of more than 700 research publications.