- Michael Sela
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Michael Sela (Hebrew: מיכאל סלע) (born 2 March 1924) is an Israeli immunologist of Polish Jewish origin. He is W. Garfield Weston Professor of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot.[1]
Contents
Birth and academic career
Michael Sela was born as Mieczyslaw Solomonowicz in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Poland, in 1924. Today, he is Professor in the Weizmann Institute's Immunology Department.
Research
Sela is known for his research in immunology, particularly for research on synthetic antigens, molecules that trigger the immune system to attack. These work of Sela have led to the discovery of the genetic control of the immune response, as well as to the design of vaccines based on synthetic molecules.
He was among the first who introduced the use of linear and branched synthetic polypeptides as antigens, and this brought about a better understanding of immunological phenomena.
For several decades, Sela have been interested in the possibility of fighting the autoimmune disease, experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) with synthetic analogs of the molecules in the myelin sheath of the brain which are capable of provoking the disease.
Awards and honours
Sela has received several awards. Following are the major awards received by Sela.
- The Israel Prize in Life Sciences (1959)[2]
- The Rothschild Prize (1968)
- Germany's Emil von Behring Prize (1973)
- Canada's Gairdner Foundation International Award (1980)
- France's Institut de la Vie Prize (1984)
- Germany's Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit Award (1986)
- France's Officier de l'Ordre de la Légion d'honneur (1987)
- UNESCO's Albert Einstein Golden Medal (1995)
- Interbrew-Baillet Latour Health Prize of Belgium (1997)
- The Wolf Prize in Medicine (1998), along with Ruth Arnon, for "their major discoveries in the field of immunology".[3]
References
- ^ Michael Sela at the Weizmann Institute of Science
- ^ "Israel Prize recipients in 1959 (in Hebrew)". Israel Prize Official Site. Archived from the original on 17 February 2010 by WebCite®. http://cms.education.gov.il/EducationCMS/Units/PrasIsrael/Tashyag/Tashkab_Tashyag_Rikuz.htm?DictionaryKey=Tashyat.
- ^ The Wolf Prize in Medicine
External links
- The Wolf Prize in Medicine in 1998 (detail)
- The Interbrew-Baillet Latour Health Prize of Belgium in 1997
See also
Chaim Weizmann · Abba Eban · Meyer Weisgal · Albert Sabin · Israel Dostrovsky · Michael Sela · Aryeh Dvoretzky · Haim Harari · Ilan Chet · Daniel ZajfmanCategories:- 1924 births
- Living people
- Polish Jews
- Jews in Ottoman and British Palestine
- Israeli Jews
- Polish emigrants to Israel
- People from Tomaszów Mazowiecki
- Immunologists
- Wolf Prize in Medicine laureates
- Commanders Crosses of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
- Members of the European Academy of Sciences and Arts
- Weizmann Institute faculty
- Israel Prize in life sciences recipients
- Presidents of Weizmann Institute of Science
- Members of the Israel Academy of Sciences and Humanities
- Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
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