Harald von Boehmer
Encyclopedia
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 René Descartes University
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
. He is also currently an adjunct professor at the University of Florida
.
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 its 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).
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
/Swiss
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
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
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
(1974). He was a member of the Basel Institute for Immunology
Basel Institute for Immunology
The Basel Institute for Immunology was founded in 1969 as a basic research institute in immunology located at 487 Grenzacherstrasse, Basel, Switzerland on the Rhine River down the street from the main Hoffmann-La Roche campus near the Swiss-German border. The institute opened its doors in 1971...
in Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
(1973–1996), director of Unité INSERM 373 at the René Descartes University
University of Paris V: René Descartes
Paris Descartes University, is one of the main Paris universities, with a strong focus on:* Medical Sciences...
in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and is Professor of Pathology at Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School
Harvard Medical School is the graduate medical school of Harvard University. It is located in the Longwood Medical Area of the Mission Hill neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts....
and the Faculty of Arts and Sciences of Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
, Cambridge and Chief of the Laboratory for Lymphocyte Biology at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute in Boston
Boston
Boston is the capital of and largest city in Massachusetts, and is one of the oldest cities in the United States. The largest city in New England, Boston is regarded as the unofficial "Capital of New England" for its economic and cultural impact on the entire New England region. The city proper had...
. He is also currently an adjunct professor at the University of Florida
University of Florida
The University of Florida is an American public land-grant, sea-grant, and space-grant research university located on a campus in Gainesville, Florida. The university traces its historical origins to 1853, and has operated continuously on its present Gainesville campus since September 1906...
.
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
T cell receptor
The T cell receptor or TCR is a molecule found on the surface of T lymphocytes that is responsible for recognizing antigens bound to major histocompatibility complex molecules...
(TCR) to recognition by T cells of peptide-MHC
Major histocompatibility complex
Major histocompatibility complex is a cell surface molecule encoded by a large gene family in all vertebrates. MHC molecules mediate interactions of leukocytes, also called white blood cells , which are immune cells, with other leukocytes or body cells...
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
Thymus
The thymus is a specialized organ of the immune system. The thymus produces and "educates" T-lymphocytes , which are critical cells of the adaptive immune system....
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
MHC class I
MHC class I molecules are one of two primary classes of major histocompatibility complex molecules and are found on every nucleated cell of the body...
and MHC class II
MHC class II
MHC Class II molecules are found only on a few specialized cell types, including macrophages, dendritic cells and B cells, all of which are professional antigen-presenting cells ....
ligands on the intrathymic generation of CD8
CD8
CD8 is a transmembrane glycoprotein that serves as a co-receptor for the T cell receptor . Like the TCR, CD8 binds to a major histocompatibility complex molecule, but is specific for the class I MHC protein. There are two isoforms of the protein, alpha and beta, each encoded by a different gene...
killer and CD4
CD4
CD4 is a glycoprotein expressed on the surface of T helper cells, monocytes, macrophages, and dendritic cells. It was discovered in the late 1970s and was originally known as leu-3 and T4 before being named CD4 in 1984...
helper cells , respectively. Further studies were concerned with the structure and function of the pre-T cell receptor and its 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
Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine
The Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine is awarded annually by the Louis-Jeantet Foundation to biomedical researchers in Europe; the awards are made each April...
jointly with Nicole Le Douarin and Gottfried Schatz
Gottfried Schatz
Gottfried Schatz is a Swiss - Austrian biochemist. He played a leading role in elucidating the biogenesis of mitochondria and was a co-discoverer of mitochondrial DNA.- Life and career :...
in Geneva (1990) and received an honorary Medical Degree from the University of Technology, Munich (2002).
Awards
- 1990 Louis Jeantet Prize for MedicineLouis-Jeantet Prize for MedicineThe Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine is awarded annually by the Louis-Jeantet Foundation to biomedical researchers in Europe; the awards are made each April...
(GenevaGenevaGeneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...
) - 1990 Elected member of the Academia EuropaeaAcademia EuropaeaAcademia Europæa is a European non-governmental scientific academy founded in 1988. Its members are scientists and scholars who collectively aim to promote learning, education and research. It publishes European Review through Cambridge Journals....
(LondonLondonLondon is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
) - 1990 Avery-Landsteiner-Prize of the German society for immunology (AachenAachenAachen has historically been a spa town in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. Aachen was a favoured residence of Charlemagne, and the place of coronation of the Kings of Germany. Geographically, Aachen is the westernmost town of Germany, located along its borders with Belgium and the Netherlands, ...
) - 1993 Paul EhrlichPaul EhrlichPaul Ehrlich was a German scientist in the fields of hematology, immunology, and chemotherapy, and Nobel laureate. He is noted for curing syphilis and for his research in autoimmunity, calling it "horror autotoxicus"...
- and Ludwig Darmstädter-Prize (FrankfurtFrankfurtFrankfurt am Main , commonly known simply as Frankfurt, is the largest city in the German state of Hesse and the fifth-largest city in Germany, with a 2010 population of 688,249. The urban area had an estimated population of 2,300,000 in 2010...
) - 1997 Kurt A. Körber PrizeKurt A. KörberKurt A. Körber was a German founder and businessman, who founded the Hauni Maschinenbau AG, an internationally leading company for the production of machines for the tobacco industry and the Körber Foundation , both based in Hamburg, Germany...
for European Science (HamburgHamburg-History:The first historic name for the city was, according to Claudius Ptolemy's reports, Treva.But the city takes its modern name, Hamburg, from the first permanent building on the site, a castle whose construction was ordered by the Emperor Charlemagne in AD 808...
) - 1997 Elected member of the Institut Universitaire de France
- 2002 Honorary doctor in Medical degree of the Technical University of MunichTechnical University of MunichThe Technische Universität München is a research university with campuses in Munich, Garching, and Weihenstephan...
- 2003 Elected member of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (HalleHalle, Saxony-AnhaltHalle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
) - 2003 National Institutes of Health NIH Merit Award (Washington D.C.)
- 2004 Sherman Fairchild FoundationSherman Fairchild FoundationThe Sherman Fairchild Foundation, founded in 1955, is a charitable foundation of Sherman Mills Fairchild, founder and chairman of many Fairchild Corporations. Fairchild formed two charitable Foundations, the Fairchild Foundation and the Sherman Fairchild Foundation during his lifetime...
award
Publications (Selected Papers)
- 1. von Boehmer, H., Sprent, J. and Nabholz, M..: Tolerance to histocompatibility determinants in tetraparental bone marrow chimeras. J. Exp. Med. 141, 322 (1975). Graft-versus-host disease-free allogeneic bone marrow transplantation after T cell removal (used later to cure human immunodeficiency).
- 2. von Boehmer, H., Hudson, L. and Sprent, J.: Collaboration of histo-incompatible T and B lymphocytes using cells from tetraparental bone manow chimeras. J. Exp. Med. 1421989 (1975); von Boehmer, H. and Haaso W.: Cytotoxic T lymphocytes recognize allogeneic toleruted, TNP-conjugated cells. Nature 261, 141 (1976). Allo-MHC-restricted CD4 and CD8 T cells in hemopoietic chimeras reveal plasticity of MHC-restricted antigen recognition.
- 3. Dembic, Z., Haas, W., Weiss, S., McCubrey, J., Kiefer, H., von Boehmer, H. and Steinmetz, M.: Transfer of specificity by marine alpha and beta T cell receptor genes. Nature 329, 232 (1986). Transfer of alpha and beta TCR genes shows MHC-restricted antigen recognition by a single receptor.
- 4. Kisielow, P., Blüthmann, H., Staerz, U. D., Steinmetz, M. and von Boehmer, H.: Tolerance in T cell receptor transgenic mice: deletion of nonmatare CD4+8+ thymoqttes. Nature 333, 742-746 (1988); Swat, W., Ignatowicz, L., von Boehmer, H. and Kisielow, P.: Clonal deletion of immature CD4+8+ thymocytes in suspension culture by extrathymic antigen-presenting cells. Nature 351, 150 (1991). Central tolerance by deletion of immature T cells in TCR transgenic mice.
- 5. Teho H. S., Kisielow, P., Scott, 8., Kishi, H., Uematsu, Y., Blüthmann, H. and von Boehmer, H.: Thymic MHC antigens and the specfficity of the ap T cell receptor determine the CD4/CD6 phenotype of T cells. Nature 335, 229 (1988); Scott, 8., Blüthmann, H., Teh, H. S. and von Boehmer, H.: The generation of mature T cells requires an interaction of the alpha beta T cell receptor with major histocompatibility antigens. Nature 338, 591 (1989). Essential role of T cell receptor-mediated positive selection in T cell survival and lineage fate (CD4/8) determination.
- 6. Rocha, B. and von Boehmer, H.: Peripheral selection of the T cell repertoire. Science 251, 1225 (1991). Peripheral tolerance by deletion of and reversible anergy in matureT cells.
- 7. Borgulya, P., Kishi, H., Uematsu, Y. and von Boehmer, H.: Exclusion and inclusion of alpha and beta T cell receptor alleles. Cell 69, 529 (1992); Aifantis, I., Buer, J., von Boehmer, H. and Azogui, O.: Essential role of the pre-T cell receptor in allelic exclusion of the T cell receptor beta locus. Immunity 7, 601-607 (1997). Pre-TCR-mediated feedback on TCRbeta rearrangement as essential mechanism for TCRbeta allelic exclusion. Lack of TCRalpha allelic exclusion.
- 8. Bruno, L., Kirberg, J. and von Boehmer, H.: On the cellular basis of immunological T cell memory. Immunity 2,37-43 (1995). T cell memory rests with memory cells that differ in phenotype and function from naive T cells and survive in the absence of antigen.
- 9. Groettrup, M., Ungewiss, K., Azogui, O., Palacios, R., Owen, M. J., Hayday, A. C. and von Boehmer, H.: A novel disulfide-linked heterodimer on pre-T cells consists of the T cell receptor beta chain and a 33 kd glycoprotein. Cell 75, 283-294 (1993); Saint-Ruf, C., Ungewiss, K., Groettrup, M., Bruno, L., Fehling, H. J. and von Boehmer, H.: Analysis and expression of a cloned pre-T cell receptor gene. Science 266,1208-1212 (1994); Fehling, H.J., Krotkova, A., Saint-Ruf, C. and von Boehmer, H.: Crucial role of the pre-T cell receptor in development of alpha beta but not gamma delta T cells. Nature 375, 795-798 (1995). Discovery of the pre-TCR. Cloning and targeting of the Ptcra gene.
- 10. Apostolou, I., Sarukhan, A., Klein, L. and von Boehmer, H.: Origin of regulatory T cells with known specificity for antigen. Nat. Immunol. 3, 756-63 (2002); Kretschmer, K., Apostolou, I., Hawiger, D., Khazaie, K-, Nussenzweig, M. C. and von Boehmer, H.: Inducing and expanding regulatory T cells by foreign antigen. Nat. Immunol. 6, 1219-1227 (2005). Marson, A.°, Kretschmer, K.°, Frampton, G. M., Jacobsen, E. S., Polansky, J., MacIsaac, K. D., Levine, S. S., Fraenkel, E., von Boehmer, H., Young, R. A.: Foxp3 occupancy and regulation of key target genes during T-cell stimulation. Nature 445, 931-5 (2007). Antigen-dependent intra- and extra-thymic generation of regulatory T cells and Foxp3-dependent gene regulation.
External links
- 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 CongressLibrary of CongressThe Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
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 FreiburgUniversity of FreiburgThe University of Freiburg , sometimes referred to in English as the Albert Ludwig University of Freiburg, is a public research university located in Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Germany.The university was founded in 1457 by the Habsburg dynasty as the...
: http://www.ub.uni-freiburg.de/xopac/wwwolix.cgi?db=ubfr&ai=39595&Band=Boehmer,%20Harald%20von%20[Vorr.]