Contents
Baruj Benacerraf
Showing that inherited genes influence immune responses.
Particle clearance · Immune-response genes
- Born
- 29 October 1920
- Birthplace
- Caracas, Venezuela
- Died
- 2 August 2011
More people
Baruj Benacerraf
Baruj Benacerraf was a Venezuelan-born American immunologist. He shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Jean Dausset and George Snell for discoveries about immune-system regulation.
Early life
International childhood
Grew up partly in Paris before moving to the United States.
Medical education
Studied at Columbia and the Medical College of Virginia, graduating as a doctor in 1945.
Career
- 1948
Immunology research
Began laboratory work at Columbia after military service.
- 1956
New York University
Established a laboratory studying immune responses.
- 1970
Harvard
Joined the medical school’s pathology faculty.
- 1980
Cancer-institute leadership
Became president of Dana-Farber and shared the Nobel Prize.
Contributions
Particle clearance
Studied how the body removes particles from the blood.
Immune-response genes
Demonstrated inherited differences in responses to particular antigens.
Dana-Farber leadership
Helped guide the cancer institute’s research and development.
Beyond medicine
Family
Married Annette Dreyfus; their daughter Beryl became a physician.
Memoir
Published an account of his life, From Caracas to Stockholm, in 1998.
Sources & photo credit
Life, career and references ↗Nobel biography ↗Photo: Unknown author Unknown author. Public domain · Original image. Cropped and displayed in monochrome.
