Baruj

Baruj Benacerraf (October 29, 1920 – August 2, 2011) was a Venezuelan-American immunologist, who shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the "discovery of the major histocompatibility complex genes which encode cell surface protein molecules important for the immune system's distinction between self and non-self". His colleagues and shared recipients were Jean Dausset and George D. Snell.

Early life and education

Benacerraf was born in Caracas, Venezuela on October 29, 1920 to Sephardic Jewish parents from Spanish Morocco. His father was a textile merchant. Benacerraf moved to Paris from Venezuela with his family in 1925. He went on to study at the Lycée Janson de Sailly, and later at the University of Paris. However, due to the anti-Semitic laws of the Vichy Government, he had to leave France and continue his studies in the United States.

Career

In 1943, Benacerraf was drafted into the U.S. Army, where he served two years in the Medical Corps. After the war, he went on to attend the Medical College of Virginia of Virginia Commonwealth University, where he received his Doctor of Medicine degree in 1945. He became a U.S. citizen in 1943.

Benacerraf conducted research at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, and later at the Broussais Hospital in Paris. In 1956, he became an Assistant Professor of Pathology at New York University, where he began his studies of immune responses to tumors. He moved to National Institutes of Health in 1968 and became the Chief of the Laboratory of Immunology, a position he held until 1980.

Nobel Prize

In 1980, Benacerraf was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, along with Jean Dausset and George D. Snell, for their discoveries concerning "genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions".

Death

Benacerraf died on August 2, 2011 in Boston, Massachusetts.

See also

• Immunology
• Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• Major histocompatibility complex

References

Baruj Resources
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