Baruj Benacerraf

Infobox Scientist
name = Baruj Benacerraf
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caption = Baruj Benacerraf
birth_date = 29 October, 1920 (age 87)
birth_place = Caracas
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citizenship = United States
nationality = Venezuela
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field = immunology
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known_for = Major histocompatibility complex
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prizes = 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
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Baruj Benacerraf (born 29 October, 1920) is a US immunologist born in Venezuela, son of a Jewish family originating from Morocco, who shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the "discovery of the Major histocompatibility complex genes which encode cell surface molecules important for the immune system's distinction between self and non-self". His brother is well-known philosopher Paul Benacerraf.

Born in Caracas, his parents were Sephardic Jews: his father was born in the Spanish Morocco and his mother in Algeria. Dr. Benacerraf moved to Paris from Venezuela with his family in 1925. After going back to Venezuela, he emigrated to the USA in 1940 and in 1943 became a naturalized citizen. He 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 US Army service (1945–48), and working at the military hospital of Nancy, he became a researcher at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons (1948–50). He performed research in Paris (1950–56), relocated to New York University (1956–68), moved to the National Institutes of Health (1968–70), then joined Harvard University (1970–91), concurrently serving the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston (1980). He began studies of allergies in 1948, and discovered the Ir (immune response) genes that govern transplant rejection (1960s).

In 1990, Benacerraf also received National Medal of Science for his contributions to the world of medicine.

References

*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Raju
first=T N
authorlink=
year=1999|month=Nov.
title=The Nobel chronicles. 1980: George Davis Snell (1903-96); Jean Baptiste Dausset (b 1916); Baruj Benacerraf (b 1920)
journal=Lancet
volume=354
issue=9191
pages=1738
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 10568613
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
doi = 10.1016/S0140-6736(05)76734-9
*cite journal
quotes = yes
year=1992|month=Apr.
title=The Nobel Lectures in Immunology. The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, 1980 awarded to Baruj Benacerraf, Jean Daussett & George D. Snell
journal=Scand. J. Immunol.
volume=35
issue=4
pages=373–98
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 1557610
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =
*cite journal
quotes = yes
last=Petrányi
first=G
authorlink=
year=1981|month=Apr.
title= [Nobel Prize winners in medicine for 1980. Immunogenetic significance of the main histocompatibility system (George Snell, Jean Dausset, Baruj Benacerraf)]
journal=Orvosi hetilap
volume=122
issue=14
pages=835–7
publisher = | location = | issn =
pmid = 7019812
bibcode = | oclc =| id = | url = | language = | format = | accessdate = | laysummary = | laysource = | laydate = | quote =

External links

* [http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1980/index.html 1980 Nobel Medicine Winners]
* [http://nobelprize.org/medicine/laureates/1980/benacerraf-autobio.html Nobel autobiography]