Harald von Boehmer

Infobox Person


image_size = 150px
name = Harald von Boehmer
caption =
birth_date = November 30, 1942
birth_place = Guben
occupation = Immunologist

Harald von Boehmer is a German/Swiss immunologist best known for his work on T lymphocytes.

He obtained an M.D. from the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich (1968) and a Ph.D. from Melbourne University, Australia (1974). He was a member of the Basel Institute for Immunology in Switzerland (1973-1996), director of Unité INSERM 373 at the in Paris, France and is Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University, Cambridge and Chief of the Laboratory for Lymphocyte Biology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. Harald von Boehmer has studied the role of T lymphocytes in the immune system. In particular he has addressed the contribution of the T cell receptor (TCR) to recognition by T cells of peptide-MHC complexes by transfer of TCR alfa and beta genes from one T cell clone to another. Questions concerned with the role of positive and negative selection of developing T cells by peptide-MHC complexes in the thymus in generating an effective and self-tolerant immune system were analyzed in TCR transgenic mice. The same experimental system served the purpose to study the impact of TCR-ligation on developing T cells by MHC class I and MHC class II ligands on the intrathymic generation of CD8 killer and CD4 helper cells , respectively. Further studies were concerned with the structure and function of the pre-T cell receptor and it's role in controlling survival and differentiation of developing T cells that have succeeded in productive TCR beta rearrangement. Presently Harald von Boehmer studies the generation and function of regulatory T cells that have an essential role in preventing autoimmunity with the goal to exploit these cells in the prevention of and interference with unwanted immune reactions.

Harald von Boehmer was elected as a Senior Member of the Institut Universitaire de France (1997), was awarded the Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine jointly with Nicole Le Douarin and Gottfried Schatz in Geneva (1990) and received an honorary Medical Degree from the University of Technology, Munich (2002). Harald von Boehmer's work ist cited in [http://www.ergito.com/toc.jsp?bcs=EXP Great Experiments] , which lists "the most significant contributions in the 20th century to the understanding of biology at the molecular and cellular levels".

Awards

* 1990 Louis Jeantet Prize for Medicine (Geneva)
* 1990 Elected member of the Academia Europaea (London)
* 1990 Karl-Landsteiner Prize (Aachen)
* 1993 Paul Ehrlich- and Ludwig Darmstädter-Prize (Frankfurt)
* 1997 Kurt A. Körber Prize for European Science (Hamburg)
* 2002 Honorary doctor in Medical degree of the Technical University of Munich
* 2003 Elected member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (Halle)
* 2003 National Institutes of Health NIH Merit Award (Washington D.C.)
* 2004 Sherman Fairchild Foundation award

External links

* [http://www.hms.harvard.edu/dms/immunology/fac/Von_Boehmer.html Harald von Boehmer's Official website at Harvard Medical School]
* http://www.jcu.edu.au/school/pms/CGC/vonBoehmerProfile.html
* Harald von Boehmer in Library of Congress [http://lccn.loc.gov/92245733] , [http://lccn.loc.gov/85004331]
* Harald von Boehmer in Deutsche Nationalbibliothek: [http://d-nb.info/gnd/112891500] and [http://d-nb.info/gnd/106389734]
* Harald von Boehmer in the library of the University of Freiburg: [http://www.ub.uni-freiburg.de/xopac/wwwolix.cgi?db=ubfr&ai=39595&Band=Boehmer,%20Harald%20von%20 [Vorr.]