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Baruj Benacerraf

Baruj Benacerraf, Venezuelan-born US immunologist (Caracas 29 October 1920 - Boston, Massachusetts 02 August 2011) 
 

Son of Sephardic Jews that came from North Africa

His wife Annette Dreyfus was niece of Nobel Laureate Jacques Monod
 
ACHIEVEMENTS
Discovered genes that regulate immune responses and traced it to a region of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) in 1969
 
Studied the chemistry of suppressor T lymphocytes leading to understand the possibility to control autoimmune diseases

With B. Levine showed that immune response was due to the presence of a gene (Ir gene)


With G. Biozzi developed mathematical equations that describe the amount of foreign material that can be removed by phagocytes of liver and spleen


With Z. Ovary, K. Bloch & F. Kourilsky established unequivocally that different classes or subclasses of immunoglobulins mediated distinct functions


With A. Berken established the existence of receptors on phagocytic cells for the Fc portion of antibody 


With Z. Ovary discovered bridging effect 

 

Developed a technique for assessment of the phagocytic activity of the macrophage system.
With G. Biozzi and B.N. Halpern. Quantitative study of the granulopectic activity of the reticulo-endothelial system. II. A study of the kinetics of the RES in relation to the dose of carbon injected; relationship between the weight of the organs and their activity. Brit.J.Exp.Pathol. 34:441-57, 1953.
 

Developed carbon clearance test

With G. Biozzi, C. Stiffel and B.N. Halpern. Etude quantitative de l’activité granulopexique du SRE chez la souris. C.R. Seances Soc. Biol. Fil. 148:431, 1954.
 

HONORS

Medicine and Physiology Nobel Prize (1980)