Rupert Everett Billingham (October 15, 1921 – November 16, 2002) was a British American biologist who did significant research in the fields of reproductive immunology and organ transplantation. "He made numerous fundamental contributions to our modern knowledge of the mechanisms of graft rejection and how to prevent it, and he analysed some of the mechanisms responsible for the survival of the mammalian foetus in an immunologically hostile environment".

Billingham was born in Warminster

Warminster

Warminster is a town in western Wiltshire, England, by-passed by the A36, and near Frome and Westbury. It has a population of about 17,000. The River Were runs through the town and can be seen running through the middle of the town park. The Minster Church of St Denys sits on the River Were...

, Wiltshire

Wiltshire

Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...

, the son of a dairy farmer. He completed his BSc in zoology at Oxford University. His studies were interrupted by the War

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

, he completed war time service in the Royal Navy serving on an anti-submarine escort. He returned to Oxford in 1946 and became Peter Medawar

Peter Medawar

Sir Peter Brian Medawar OM CBE FRS was a British biologist, whose work on graft rejection and the discovery of acquired immune tolerance was fundamental to the practice of tissue and organ transplants...

's research student. During his PhD he worked on skin grafts in guinea pigs, demonstrating that when black skin was grafted onto white skin, the white skin became black. They proposed that the change was due to the dissemination of a self replicating agent from normal melanocytes into non-melanin-producing cells; but this hypothesis was wrong and they later showed that pigment spread was due to cell migration.
In 1947 Medawar accepted the chair of zoology at the University of Birmingham

University of Birmingham

The University of Birmingham is a British Redbrick university located in the city of Birmingham, England. It received its royal charter in 1900 as a successor to Birmingham Medical School and Mason Science College . Birmingham was the first Redbrick university to gain a charter and thus...

. He continued to work on transplantation with Medawar, and in 1951 they both accepted positions at the University College London

University College London

University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...

. Together they demonstrated immune tolerance

Immune tolerance

Immune tolerance or immunological tolerance is the process by which the immune system does not attack an antigen. It can be either 'natural' or 'self tolerance', in which the body does not mount an immune response to self antigens, or 'induced tolerance', in which tolerance to external antigens can...

 as proposed by Frank Macfarlane Burnet

Frank Macfarlane Burnet

Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, , usually known as Macfarlane or Mac Burnet, was an Australian virologist best known for his contributions to immunology....

. Burnet and Medawar received the Nobel Prize for this work in 1960. They also worked on graft-versus-host disease

Graft-versus-host disease

Graft-versus-host disease is a common complication after a stem cell transplant or bone marrow transplant from another person . Immune cells in the donated marrow or stem cells recognize the recipient as "foreign". The transplanted immune cells then attack the host's body cells...

.

In 1951 Billingham married and had 3 children with his wife Jean Billingham. Billingham emigrated to the United States in 1957 , and took a position at the Wistar Institute

Wistar Institute

The Wistar Institute is a biomedical center, with a focus on cancer research and vaccine development. It is located in the University City section of Philadelphia, Pa...

. In 1965 he became chair of the Department of Human Genetics at the University of Pennsylvania

University of Pennsylvania

The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...

. The same year, he was elected a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences

American Academy of Arts and Sciences

The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...

. He moved to the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center is one of the biomedical research institutions of the University of Texas System, incorporating three degree-granting institutions, four affiliated hospitals, including Parkland Memorial, the teaching hospital, and biomedical research...

 in 1971. He died in Boston aged 81, following a long illness with Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease

Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system...

.