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Nobel laureate for medicine Benacerraf dies aged 90
Aug 3, 2011, 13:28 GMT
Boston - The 1980 Nobel Prize laureate for medicine, Baruj Benacerraf, has died at the age of 90, the Boston Globe reported Wednesday.
Having taught at Harvard University since 1970, Benacerraf shared the Nobel Prize with researchers Jean Dausset and George Davis Snell for the discovery of cellular structures that govern immunological reactions. He died in Boston on Tuesday.
His life's work was devoted to the study of immunology in transplants. He and his colleagues Snell and Dausset demonstrated that tissue tolerance in transplantation was governed genetically.
Because of this research, before any transplant takes place today, whether a patient is compatible with the donated tissue is first determined.
A US citizen, Benacerraf was born in Caracas, Venezuela, and raised in Paris. He was the product of a Spanish Moroccan father and Algerian mother. As a young man he moved to New York, where he studied medicine.
Benacerraf's brother is the mathematical philosopher Paul Benacerraf. His wife Annette, to whom he was married for 68 years, predeceased him by just two months.
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