They are John P. Atkinson, M.D., Adolphus Busch Professor and chairman of the John Milliken Department of Medicine, and John W. Olney, M.D., professor of psychiatry and neuropathology. Atkinson, who also is a professor of molecular microbiology, is renowned for his research into the structure, function and genetics of the complement system, a group of proteins critical to the immune response.
Complement proteins help the body recognize and destroy foreign tissues.
Deficiencies in the complement system can lead to diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus. His research has sparked efforts to create transgenic animals that express human MCP so that organs from those animals might be transplanted into humans without fear of acute rejection. His studies on complement regulatory proteins provided an explanation for how a potent effector and self-nonself recognition system is controlled. Atkinson joined the Washington University faculty as an assistant professor of medicine and head of the Division of Rheumatology in 1976. He became a full professor in 1984 and chairman of the Department of Medicine in 1992.