Who is this Polly anyway?

Monday, 07 June 2010 00:00

As you may have read in my introduction, Polly Madsinger is not my real name. However, I didn't just pick a funny name, there is actually a thought behind it:

At one point not too long ago, someone asked me to think back to a time I felt really inspired by something or someone. I immediately thought of this lecture I went to by this American lady a few months ago. This lecture was completely different from any lecture I had been to before. I had already heard of this lady when I was a student, when I had to study one of her review articles for an oral exam. She is the inventor of the danger/non-danger theory, which, at that time, was this bold, new theory in the immunology field, quite drastically opposing the well established self/non-self theory.

Anyway, to make a long story short, this lady is different! (Before going into science she had jobs as a playboy bunny, a carpenter and a jazz musician amongst others.) She is also very creative, incredibly smart and dares to think outside the box, thereby offending quite a few of the hotshots. (She was barred from The Journal of Experimental Medicine after the discovery that one of her co-authors turned out to be her dog Galadriel.) She does things completely her own way, but remains very open minded to other ideas and counterarguments for her own theory. In addition, she very clearly loved teaching the basics of immunology to others.

She was, and is still, a great inspiration to me. Her name: Polly Matzinger.

For more information and links, see: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Polly_Matzinger