Baruj BenacerrafBorn 29 Oct 1920.Venezuelan-American geneticist and immunologist who studied the mechanisms and genetic basis of the immunologic response and especially of its role in certain diseases known as the autoimmune diseases. He received a share (with George Snell and Jean Dausset) of the 1980 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine. Benacerraf showed that genetic factors intimately related to the genes that determine an individual's unique constitution of H antigens actually regulate the interaction among the various cells belonging to the immunological system and are thereby important to the strength of an immunological reaction. He studied the guinea pig's ability to mobilize an immune response against a certain antigen as determined by genetic factors (Ir or immune response) genes. |
