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)
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