Baruj Benacerraf - Medical Pioneer and Nobel Prize Winner

Baruj Benacerraf is a pathologist and immunologist who 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.

    Born in Caracas, Venezuela in October, 1920, Benacerraf was the son of Sephardic Jews: his father was born in the Spanish Morocco and his mother in Algeria. Benacerraf moved to Paris from Venezuela with his family in 1925. After going back to Venezuela, he emigrated to the USA in 1940 and earned his B.S. at Columbia University School of General Studies. He then went on to attain the degree of Doctor of Medicine from the Medical College of Virginia, the only school to which he was accepted.  After his medical internship and in the immediate years following World War II,  Benacerraf served in the United States Army and while working at the US military hospital of Nancy, he became a researcher at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons.

  After studying at Columbia and later in Paris, Benacerraf relocated and began research work with the New York University, National Institutes of Health and eventually joined Harvard University.  While concurrently serving Harvard and the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute,  Benacerraf began studies of allergies, and in 1960 discovered the Ir (immune response) genes that govern transplant rejection. 
    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." In 1990, Benacerraf also received National Medal of Science for his contributions to the world of medicine.