My wife, Patricia Chisholm, who has died of cancer aged 64, was an immunologist who collaborated with the heart transplant surgeon Magdi Yacoub in the study of organ rejection. She was also a popular lecturer, able to elucidate and communicate complex ideas.
Tricia was born in Dundee, one of six children, and educated at the Grove academy, where she excelled in sport, played the harp and became head girl. Her father, Ian Chisholm, worked at DC Thomson, on the staff of the Beano, where he drew the first prototype of Dennis the Menace on a cigarette packet. Her mother, Winifred, trained as a nurse. Tricia studied biology in Edinburgh, and took a PhD in immunology under the aegis of Bill Ford, the first professor of immunology at Manchester University. In those days, a key question was how white blood cells, lymphocytes, circulated around the body.
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