Anthony Butterworth

Anthony Butterworth is a British physician, known for research on the epidemiology and immunology of schistosomiasis ( schistosomiasis ).

Butterworth studied medicine at Cambridge University ( Bachelor's degrees as MB 1969). In 1973 he received his doctorate there. He worked in many countries in Africa and South and Central America in research. In the 2000s he was in Harare, Zimbabwe, where he oversaw research on malaria, tuberculosis, AIDS and other diseases at the Biomedical Research and Training Institute. He is currently in Malawi.

In the 1970s, he was a scientist at the Wellcome Trust Research Laboratories, Nairobi, the role of eosinophils ( in interaction with specific antibodies) in the immune response of schistosomiasis and clarified later at Harvard Medical School, the defense mechanism used in this case in more detail on (they contain granules with toxic substances that they release against the parasite ). Before that eosinophils were mainly known for their role in allergy.

In studies in Kenya and Uganda, he showed that some individuals develop immunity against schistosomiasis, with an increase of immunoglobulin E antibodies that act against the worm and form a starting point for the development of vaccines.

He also examined the interaction of schistosomiasis with other diseases and with his wife Liz Corbett of AIDS and tuberculosis in miners in South Africa.

In 1990 he was awarded with André Capron the King Faisal Prize in Medicine. In 1994 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society and he is a member of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. In 1990 he received the Chalmers Medal. In 1987 he received the Bernhard -Nocht Medal.