| Baruj Benacerraf  Born: 29-Oct-1920
Birthplace: Caracas, Venezuela
Died: 2-Aug-2011
Location of death: Boston, MA
Cause of death: Pneumonia
Gender: Male
Religion: Jewish
Race or Ethnicity: Hispanic
Sexual orientation: Straight
Occupation: Scientist, Doctor Nationality: United States
Executive summary: Gene control of HLA antigens Military service: US Army Medical Corps (1943-47, 1st Lt.) Born in Venezuela, raised in France, and educated in America, pathologist and immunologist Baruj Benacerraf discovered the genes that regulate the body's immune responses, and showed how these genes are involved in autoimmune diseases (in which the immune system mistakenly attacks instead of defends). In 1980 he received the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology, for "discovery of the Major histocompatibility complex genes which encode cell surface molecules important for the immune system's distinction between self and non-self." The award was shared with Jean Dausset and George D. Snell.
Benacerraf's findings have advanced the scientific understanding of such autoimmune diseases as multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis. He served more than a decade as President of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, to which he gave his Nobel winnings. "I felt it was the best way to show my belief in the research goals of the institute", he said, "to benefit mankind by eradication of cancer." His brother, Paul Benacerraf, is a well-known mathematician and philosopher, and his daughter, Beryl Benacerraf, is a professor of radiology at Harvard. Father: (textile merchant)
Brother: Paul Benacerraf (mathematician-philosopher)
Wife: Annette Dreyfus Benacerraf
Daughter: Beryl Benacerraf (radiologist, b. 1949)
University: BA French, Columbia University (1941)
Medical School: MD, University of Virginia (1945)
Scholar: Immunochemistry and Immunology, Columbia University (1948-49)
Scholar: Immunology, Broussais University Hospital (1949-56)
Teacher: Pathology, New York University (1956-60)
Professor: Pathology, New York University (1960-68)
Administrator: Director of Immunology Lab, National Institutes of Health (1968-70)
Professor: Comparative Pathology, Harvard Medical School (1970-91)
Nobel Prize for Medicine 1980 (with Jean Dausset and George D. Snell)
National Medal of Science 1990
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Association of Immunologists President (1973)
Federation of American Scientists Board of Sponsors
John Kerry for President
National Academy of Sciences
National Cancer Institute
National Institutes of Health
Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine President (1974)
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute President (1980-92)
Rudy Giuliani Presidential Committee
Naturalized US Citizen 1943
Algerian Ancestry
French Ancestry
Jewish Ancestry
Moroccan Ancestry
Spanish Ancestry
Venezuelan Ancestry
Risk Factors: Asthma
Author of books:
Immunological Tolerance: Mechanisms and Potential Therapeutic Applications (1974, with David H. Katz)
Immunogenetics and immunodeficiency (1975)
Textbook of Immunology (1984, with Emil R. Unanue)
From Caracas to Stockholm: A Life in Medical Science (1998, autobiography)
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