Jean Dausset
Encyclopedia
Jean-Baptiste-Gabriel-Joachim Dausset (October 19, 1916 – June 6, 2009) was a French
immunologist born in Toulouse
, France
. He married Rose Mayoral in 1963, with whom he had two children, Henri and Irène. Dausset received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
in 1980 along with Baruj Benacerraf
and George Davis Snell
for their discovery and characterisation of the gene
s making the major histocompatibility complex
. Using the money from his Nobel Prize and a grant from the French Television, Dausset founded the Human Polymorphism Study Center (CEPH
) in 1984, which was later renamed the Foundation Jean Dausset-CEPH in his honour. Jean Dausset died on June 6, 2009 in Majorca, Spain
, at the age of 92.
, France
. He was the youngest of four children of Henri Dausset and Elisabeth Dausset (born Renard). His father was from the Pyrenees
, and was a doctor by profession, and his mother was a housewife from Lorraine
. Following the end of World War I
the Dausset family moved to Biarritz
where Jean spent most of his childhood. His father was head doctor at the Bayonne Hospital, a position that would make a great impression on Jean. Dausset was home schooled by his mother, as well as by a tutor, who would periodically come to the house. At the age of 11, Dausset and his family moved to Paris
. He began his formal schooling at the Lycée Michel, at age 15. After earning his baccalaureate
in mathematics, Dausset was convinced by his father to study medicine at the University of Paris
. Both of Dausset’s parents died just after he became an extern at the Paris Hospitals, at the age of 19. Dausset failed to pass an internship entrance exam at the Paris Hospitals, and was preparing for a second attempt when World War II
broke out.
for a year. Upon his return to Paris in 1940, Dausset studied ardently and passed his medical intern
ship exam. Soon after passing his exams, Dausset joined the Free French Forces
in North Africa
as an ambulance worker. He was originally stationed in Morocco
, but was later sent to the more active Tunisia
. Dausset got his first taste of hematology
when he had to perform numerous blood transfusion
s on wounded soldiers. As the war was winding down in 1944, Dausset returned to Paris where he worked in the Regional Blood Transfusion Center at the Saint-Antoine Hospital.
worked with Dausset, and pushed the government in to forming a committee for the reform of medical education. Hospitals were joined with universities for the first time in France, and doctors were required to instruct classes to medical students. Research began within the hospitals themselves, as opposed to in the universities alone. Finally a law was passed that instituted mandatory full time work for doctors in France.
. He worked as an immunohematologist and was interested in anaemic patients who required blood transfusions, he found that these patients lacked both red and white blood cells. In 1948, Dausset went to work as an intern in the Children’s Hospital in Boston
. He worked there in a hematology lab for about four years.
He returned to France in 1952 and once again took up the position of an intern with Marcel Bessis. It was during this time that Dausset conducted his first official research. With Bessis, Dausset discovered the first antigen-presenting leucocyte, but it was only officially described in 1958. Between the years 1952 and 1957 he collaborated with many researchers such as Gilbert Malinvaud and Jacques and Monique Colombani.
From 1952 to 1957, majority of Dausset’s time went into developing techniques and developing further ways of confirming the presence of certain antibodies. He was made the head of research at Professor Georges Marchal
’s immunohematology laboratory in the Broussais Hospital. During this time, Dausset performed blood transfusions between a voluntary donor and patients in order to further his research in the field of immune responses in the body. He was testing the ability of the antigen-presenting leucocytes in the recipient’s body, which came originally from the donor’s blood. In 1958, Dausset discovered an antibody called MAC which was a leuco-aggluntinate
; the abbreviation MAC actually stands for the initials of the names of the donors whose blood Dausset and his colleagues had used during the research.
From 1960 to 1965 Dausset worked primarily on improving organ transplantation techniques and the mechanisms involved in enhancing the body’s ability to accept the new tissue. To do this, Dausset again used the blood of voluntary donors and patients to see what differences lay in the blood of the two individuals and how to minimize these differences.
1965 was a crucial year for research. There was an intense competition amongst the researchers of the immunohematology field as everyone was on the brink of making a major discovery in the genetic and transplantation research. During this time, Dausset worked with Paul Ivany in Prague and they used leuco-agglutination and lymphocyte toxicity techniques to make some very significant discoveries. They discovered the Hu-1 antigen and the H-2 antigen.
In 1963 Jean Dausset became the head of the immunology at the Hôpital Saint-Louis
in 1963. This is when he discovered the HLA system
, with Felix Rapaport; by performing skin transplant experiments on volunteers and showed that success depended on histocompatibility
.
Dausset was the assistant director of the Research Institute in Blood diseases until 1968, he then became the director of the “Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale
”(INSERM) transplantation immunogenetics research unit. Dausset founded France Transplant and France Greffe de Moelle, which brings matching donor organs to recipients and provides bone marrow for transplant respectively.
lab at the Children’s Hospital in Boston. His first paper was published in 1950, and dealt with the detection of incomplete antibodies using trypsin
ized erythrocytes in a plasmatic medium
, a technique that displayed improved sensitivity over other techniques used at the time. He went on to publish more works in the field of hematology, including developing a technique in 1952 for the removal of plasma from red blood cells to be used in transfusion
s to patients somehow intolerant of whole blood transfusions. In 1952 he returned to France and continued his research, particularly focusing on hemolytic anemia
, and publishing several works dealing with various forms of blood cell agglutination. It was during this period of research, in 1954, when Dausset first observed an anti-leucocyte
agglutinating
substance, though it was not until 1958 that he identified an isoantibody
specific to leucocytes, and published his findings. It was this finding and the extensive cascade of work that followed that would ultimately earn Dausset his Nobel Prize
.
General research in antibodies, agglutination, and anemia
continued in the years following this 1958 paper. In 1962, Dausset published an examination of the correlation between leuco-agglutination and skin graft tolerance, his first observation of the antigen
s’ impact on histocompatibility
. His next paper on the subject was published in 1964, when he observed a clear relationship between leucocyte antigen compatibility and antibody response to skin grafts. This finding sparked a flurry of research in the topic of histocompatibility, and by the end of 1965 Dausset had published over a dozen papers exploring leucocyte antigens and their relevance to histocompatibility. After identifying that a two-allele
leucocyte antigen group had an influence on histocompatibility and observing the induction of hyper-sensitivity to skin grafts following injection of leucocyte fractions, Dausset developed a system for grouping leucocyte antigens on the basis of histocompatibility. Following this, he put forth the hypothesis that all known leucocyte antigens were part of a single complex, a complex which he named Hu-1. This complex would later become known as one of the Major Histocompatibility Complex
es (MHC), specifically those termed Human Leucocyte Antigen
s (HLA). Dausset’s further work in 1965 examining the effects of Hu-1 antigen injection on skin graft rejection further confirmed the conclusion that this Hu-1 complex was indeed a transplantation antigen, a conclusion which would in time have profound effects on the transplantation process.
In the years to come, Dausset continued his research on the Hu-1 complex. Through 1966 and 1967 he published several more papers on the subject, including a paper summarizing the relevance of Hu-1 antigens to oncogenesis and transplantation, development of the use of a platelet
complementation fixation test to identify which antigens are present, and the discovery that Hu-1 is homologous to the mouse H-2 complex, which also functions in histocompatibility. Toward the end of 1967 he confirmed through familial studies that all discovered antigens were in fact part of a single system. Following 1967, Dausset participated in numerous other studies pertaining to the complex (which was renamed HLA in 1968), particularly those examining the genetic basis for the antigens’ transmission, along with publishing a number of other papers for which he claimed primary authorship. For his contribution to these studies as well as his ultimate role in the discovery of this crucial antigen, Jean Dausset received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1980.
Following his reception of the Nobel Prize, Dausset’s personal research slowed considerably. He contributed to multiple studies, particularly a number relating to genetics, but did not publish anything for which he claimed primary authorship for over a decade. He retired in 2003, at the age of 87.
, Canada
to do a conference series throughout the province. He was in a dilemma because if did win, he did not want to be away from his family and colleagues, and yet, were he to stay in France, people would suspect that he was sure of winning and he might set himself up for disappointment. So instead, he decided to stay in Paris, but to stay out of the public eye. He was unsurprisingly awarded the Nobel Prize
1980, which he shared with Baruj Benacerraf
and George Davis Snell
.
. Localization of these genes was a crucial step in cloning and identifying them, this was a breakthrough for medical genetics. The CEPH system contributed DNA
from 61 large families to international centers that were responsible for mapping the human genome. Dausset and professor LL Cavalli-Sforza
collaborated, and developed a DNA resource from world populations known as HGDP-CEPH diversity panel, to be used in human population genetics
. CEPH is a non-profit organisation that was partly funded by the French government, it was not until 1993, that CEPH was renamed the Foundation Jean Dausset-CEPH. In 2003, at the age of 87, Dausset retired and became the president of CEPH.
Dausset was a member of the French Academy of Sciences. He was also a professor at the college de France. Dausset was one of the influential foreign members of the National Academy of Sciences
, USA, and an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
. He was a member of the founding Council and Vice President of the Human Genome Organization. Dausset received various prestigious prizes, such as the Landsteiner Award and prizes for the Koch and Wolf Foundations. He also served on the advisory boards of numerous research institutions.
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...
immunologist born in Toulouse
Toulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, 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...
. He married Rose Mayoral in 1963, with whom he had two children, Henri and Irène. Dausset received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...
in 1980 along with Baruj Benacerraf
Baruj Benacerraf
Baruj Benacerraf was a Venezuelan-born American immunologist, who shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the "discovery of the major histocompatibility complex genes which encode cell surface protein molecules important for the immune system's distinction between self and...
and George Davis Snell
George Davis Snell
George Davis Snell was an American mouse geneticist and basic transplant immunologist.-Work:George Snell shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Baruj Benacerraf and Jean Dausset for their discoveries concerning "genetically determined structures on the cell surface that...
for their discovery and characterisation of the gene
Gene
A gene is a molecular unit of heredity of a living organism. It is a name given to some stretches of DNA and RNA that code for a type of protein or for an RNA chain that has a function in the organism. Living beings depend on genes, as they specify all proteins and functional RNA chains...
s making the major histocompatibility complex
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...
. Using the money from his Nobel Prize and a grant from the French Television, Dausset founded the Human Polymorphism Study Center (CEPH
CEPH
Centre d'Etude du Polymorphisme Humain , now called the Fondation Jean Dausset-CEPH, is an international genetic research center located in Paris, France...
) in 1984, which was later renamed the Foundation Jean Dausset-CEPH in his honour. Jean Dausset died on June 6, 2009 in Majorca, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, at the age of 92.
Early life
Jean-Baptiste-Gabriel-Joachim Dausset was born on October 19, 1916, in ToulouseToulouse
Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...
, 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...
. He was the youngest of four children of Henri Dausset and Elisabeth Dausset (born Renard). His father was from the Pyrenees
Pyrenees
The Pyrenees is a range of mountains in southwest Europe that forms a natural border between France and Spain...
, and was a doctor by profession, and his mother was a housewife from Lorraine
Lorraine (région)
Lorraine is one of the 27 régions of France. The administrative region has two cities of equal importance, Metz and Nancy. Metz is considered to be the official capital since that is where the regional parliament is situated...
. Following the end of World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
the Dausset family moved to Biarritz
Biarritz
Biarritz is a city which lies on the Bay of Biscay, on the Atlantic coast, in south-western France. It is a luxurious seaside town and is popular with tourists and surfers....
where Jean spent most of his childhood. His father was head doctor at the Bayonne Hospital, a position that would make a great impression on Jean. Dausset was home schooled by his mother, as well as by a tutor, who would periodically come to the house. At the age of 11, Dausset and his family moved to 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...
. He began his formal schooling at the Lycée Michel, at age 15. After earning his baccalaureate
Baccalauréat
The baccalauréat , often known in France colloquially as le bac, is an academic qualification which French and international students take at the end of the lycée . It was introduced by Napoleon I in 1808. It is the main diploma required to pursue university studies...
in mathematics, Dausset was convinced by his father to study medicine at the University of Paris
University of Paris
The University of Paris was a university located in Paris, France and one of the earliest to be established in Europe. It was founded in the mid 12th century, and officially recognized as a university probably between 1160 and 1250...
. Both of Dausset’s parents died just after he became an extern at the Paris Hospitals, at the age of 19. Dausset failed to pass an internship entrance exam at the Paris Hospitals, and was preparing for a second attempt when World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
broke out.
War
Dausset was enlisted in the French army, and sent off to Northern ItalyNorthern Italy
Northern Italy is a wide cultural, historical and geographical definition, without any administrative usage, used to indicate the northern part of the Italian state, also referred as Settentrione or Alta Italia...
for a year. Upon his return to Paris in 1940, Dausset studied ardently and passed his medical intern
Intern
Internship is a system of onthejob training for white-collar jobs, similar to an apprenticeship. Interns are usually college or university students, but they can also be high school students or post graduate adults seeking skills for a new career. They may also be as young as middle school or in...
ship exam. Soon after passing his exams, Dausset joined the Free French Forces
Free French Forces
The Free French Forces were French partisans in World War II who decided to continue fighting against the forces of the Axis powers after the surrender of France and subsequent German occupation and, in the case of Vichy France, collaboration with the Germans.-Definition:In many sources, Free...
in North Africa
North Africa
North Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
as an ambulance worker. He was originally stationed in Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, but was later sent to the more active Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
. Dausset got his first taste of hematology
Hematology
Hematology, also spelled haematology , is the branch of biology physiology, internal medicine, pathology, clinical laboratory work, and pediatrics that is concerned with the study of blood, the blood-forming organs, and blood diseases...
when he had to perform numerous blood transfusion
Blood transfusion
Blood transfusion is the process of receiving blood products into one's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used in a variety of medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood...
s on wounded soldiers. As the war was winding down in 1944, Dausset returned to Paris where he worked in the Regional Blood Transfusion Center at the Saint-Antoine Hospital.
Medical Reform
After the war, Dausset worked as an intern at the Paris Hospitals, which were in a state of disrepair and badly needed structural reform. Dausset formed a group of radical doctors who pushed for change in the French medical system. Due to his activist role in this group, Dausset was appointed as the Advisor to the Cabinet of the National Ministry of Education. Dr. Robert DebréRobert Debré
Robert Debré was a French physician at Necker-Enfants Malades Hospital in Paris.He gave his name to the most important ....
worked with Dausset, and pushed the government in to forming a committee for the reform of medical education. Hospitals were joined with universities for the first time in France, and doctors were required to instruct classes to medical students. Research began within the hospitals themselves, as opposed to in the universities alone. Finally a law was passed that instituted mandatory full time work for doctors in France.
Career
After World War II Dausset worked with Professor Marcel Bessis who had developed a new transfusion technique called exchange transfusionExchange transfusion
An exchange transfusion is a medical treatment in which apheresis is used to remove one person's red blood cells or platelets and replace them with transfused blood products...
. He worked as an immunohematologist and was interested in anaemic patients who required blood transfusions, he found that these patients lacked both red and white blood cells. In 1948, Dausset went to work as an intern in the Children’s Hospital 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 worked there in a hematology lab for about four years.
He returned to France in 1952 and once again took up the position of an intern with Marcel Bessis. It was during this time that Dausset conducted his first official research. With Bessis, Dausset discovered the first antigen-presenting leucocyte, but it was only officially described in 1958. Between the years 1952 and 1957 he collaborated with many researchers such as Gilbert Malinvaud and Jacques and Monique Colombani.
From 1952 to 1957, majority of Dausset’s time went into developing techniques and developing further ways of confirming the presence of certain antibodies. He was made the head of research at Professor Georges Marchal
Georges Marchal
Georges Marchal was a French actor, one of the most beautiful. He was married to Dany Robin, forming a famous and popular couple , they play together in movies La Passagère , La Voyageuse inattendue, Le plus joli péché du monde, Jupiter directed by Gilles Grangier , Quand sonnera midi written by...
’s immunohematology laboratory in the Broussais Hospital. During this time, Dausset performed blood transfusions between a voluntary donor and patients in order to further his research in the field of immune responses in the body. He was testing the ability of the antigen-presenting leucocytes in the recipient’s body, which came originally from the donor’s blood. In 1958, Dausset discovered an antibody called MAC which was a leuco-aggluntinate
Agglutination (biology)
Agglutination is the clumping of particles. The word agglutination comes from the Latin agglutinare, meaning "to glue."This occurs in biology in three main examples:...
; the abbreviation MAC actually stands for the initials of the names of the donors whose blood Dausset and his colleagues had used during the research.
From 1960 to 1965 Dausset worked primarily on improving organ transplantation techniques and the mechanisms involved in enhancing the body’s ability to accept the new tissue. To do this, Dausset again used the blood of voluntary donors and patients to see what differences lay in the blood of the two individuals and how to minimize these differences.
1965 was a crucial year for research. There was an intense competition amongst the researchers of the immunohematology field as everyone was on the brink of making a major discovery in the genetic and transplantation research. During this time, Dausset worked with Paul Ivany in Prague and they used leuco-agglutination and lymphocyte toxicity techniques to make some very significant discoveries. They discovered the Hu-1 antigen and the H-2 antigen.
In 1963 Jean Dausset became the head of the immunology at the Hôpital Saint-Louis
Hôpital Saint-Louis
Hôpital Saint-Louis is a hospital in Paris, France. It is part of the Assistance publique - Hôpitaux de Paris hospital system, and it is located at 1 avenue Claude-Vellefaux, in the 10th arrondissement, near the metro station: Goncourt.-External links:*...
in 1963. This is when he discovered the HLA system
Human leukocyte antigen
The human leukocyte antigen system is the name of the major histocompatibility complex in humans. The super locus contains a large number of genes related to immune system function in humans. This group of genes resides on chromosome 6, and encodes cell-surface antigen-presenting proteins and...
, with Felix Rapaport; by performing skin transplant experiments on volunteers and showed that success depended on histocompatibility
Histocompatibility
Histocompatibility is the property of having the same, or mostly the same, alleles of a set of genes called the major histocompatibility complex. These genes are expressed in most tissues as antigens, to which the immune system makes antibodies...
.
Dausset was the assistant director of the Research Institute in Blood diseases until 1968, he then became the director of the “Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale
Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale
Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale is a French biomedical and public health research institution.- Medical research organisation :...
”(INSERM) transplantation immunogenetics research unit. Dausset founded France Transplant and France Greffe de Moelle, which brings matching donor organs to recipients and provides bone marrow for transplant respectively.
Research
Dausset began his research shortly after obtaining his medical degree in 1945, while working as an intern in the hematologyHematology
Hematology, also spelled haematology , is the branch of biology physiology, internal medicine, pathology, clinical laboratory work, and pediatrics that is concerned with the study of blood, the blood-forming organs, and blood diseases...
lab at the Children’s Hospital in Boston. His first paper was published in 1950, and dealt with the detection of incomplete antibodies using trypsin
Trypsin
Trypsin is a serine protease found in the digestive system of many vertebrates, where it hydrolyses proteins. Trypsin is produced in the pancreas as the inactive proenzyme trypsinogen. Trypsin cleaves peptide chains mainly at the carboxyl side of the amino acids lysine or arginine, except when...
ized erythrocytes in a plasmatic medium
Blood plasma
Blood plasma is the straw-colored liquid component of blood in which the blood cells in whole blood are normally suspended. It makes up about 55% of the total blood volume. It is the intravascular fluid part of extracellular fluid...
, a technique that displayed improved sensitivity over other techniques used at the time. He went on to publish more works in the field of hematology, including developing a technique in 1952 for the removal of plasma from red blood cells to be used in transfusion
Blood transfusion
Blood transfusion is the process of receiving blood products into one's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used in a variety of medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood...
s to patients somehow intolerant of whole blood transfusions. In 1952 he returned to France and continued his research, particularly focusing on hemolytic anemia
Hemolytic anemia
Hemolytic anemia is a form of anemia due to hemolysis, the abnormal breakdown of red blood cells , either in the blood vessels or elsewhere in the human body . It has numerous possible causes, ranging from relatively harmless to life-threatening...
, and publishing several works dealing with various forms of blood cell agglutination. It was during this period of research, in 1954, when Dausset first observed an anti-leucocyte
White blood cell
White blood cells, or leukocytes , are cells of the immune system involved in defending the body against both infectious disease and foreign materials. Five different and diverse types of leukocytes exist, but they are all produced and derived from a multipotent cell in the bone marrow known as a...
agglutinating
Agglutination (biology)
Agglutination is the clumping of particles. The word agglutination comes from the Latin agglutinare, meaning "to glue."This occurs in biology in three main examples:...
substance, though it was not until 1958 that he identified an isoantibody
Isoantibodies
Isoantibodies are antibodies produced by an individual against isoantigens produced by members of the same species. In the case of human race there are significant number of antigens which are different in every individual...
specific to leucocytes, and published his findings. It was this finding and the extensive cascade of work that followed that would ultimately earn Dausset his Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
.
General research in antibodies, agglutination, and anemia
Anemia
Anemia is a decrease in number of red blood cells or less than the normal quantity of hemoglobin in the blood. However, it can include decreased oxygen-binding ability of each hemoglobin molecule due to deformity or lack in numerical development as in some other types of hemoglobin...
continued in the years following this 1958 paper. In 1962, Dausset published an examination of the correlation between leuco-agglutination and skin graft tolerance, his first observation of the antigen
Antigen
An antigen is a foreign molecule that, when introduced into the body, triggers the production of an antibody by the immune system. The immune system will then kill or neutralize the antigen that is recognized as a foreign and potentially harmful invader. These invaders can be molecules such as...
s’ impact on histocompatibility
Histocompatibility
Histocompatibility is the property of having the same, or mostly the same, alleles of a set of genes called the major histocompatibility complex. These genes are expressed in most tissues as antigens, to which the immune system makes antibodies...
. His next paper on the subject was published in 1964, when he observed a clear relationship between leucocyte antigen compatibility and antibody response to skin grafts. This finding sparked a flurry of research in the topic of histocompatibility, and by the end of 1965 Dausset had published over a dozen papers exploring leucocyte antigens and their relevance to histocompatibility. After identifying that a two-allele
Allele
An allele is one of two or more forms of a gene or a genetic locus . "Allel" is an abbreviation of allelomorph. Sometimes, different alleles can result in different observable phenotypic traits, such as different pigmentation...
leucocyte antigen group had an influence on histocompatibility and observing the induction of hyper-sensitivity to skin grafts following injection of leucocyte fractions, Dausset developed a system for grouping leucocyte antigens on the basis of histocompatibility. Following this, he put forth the hypothesis that all known leucocyte antigens were part of a single complex, a complex which he named Hu-1. This complex would later become known as one of the Major Histocompatibility Complex
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...
es (MHC), specifically those termed Human Leucocyte Antigen
Human leukocyte antigen
The human leukocyte antigen system is the name of the major histocompatibility complex in humans. The super locus contains a large number of genes related to immune system function in humans. This group of genes resides on chromosome 6, and encodes cell-surface antigen-presenting proteins and...
s (HLA). Dausset’s further work in 1965 examining the effects of Hu-1 antigen injection on skin graft rejection further confirmed the conclusion that this Hu-1 complex was indeed a transplantation antigen, a conclusion which would in time have profound effects on the transplantation process.
In the years to come, Dausset continued his research on the Hu-1 complex. Through 1966 and 1967 he published several more papers on the subject, including a paper summarizing the relevance of Hu-1 antigens to oncogenesis and transplantation, development of the use of a platelet
Platelet
Platelets, or thrombocytes , are small,irregularly shaped clear cell fragments , 2–3 µm in diameter, which are derived from fragmentation of precursor megakaryocytes. The average lifespan of a platelet is normally just 5 to 9 days...
complementation fixation test to identify which antigens are present, and the discovery that Hu-1 is homologous to the mouse H-2 complex, which also functions in histocompatibility. Toward the end of 1967 he confirmed through familial studies that all discovered antigens were in fact part of a single system. Following 1967, Dausset participated in numerous other studies pertaining to the complex (which was renamed HLA in 1968), particularly those examining the genetic basis for the antigens’ transmission, along with publishing a number of other papers for which he claimed primary authorship. For his contribution to these studies as well as his ultimate role in the discovery of this crucial antigen, Jean Dausset received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1980.
Following his reception of the Nobel Prize, Dausset’s personal research slowed considerably. He contributed to multiple studies, particularly a number relating to genetics, but did not publish anything for which he claimed primary authorship for over a decade. He retired in 2003, at the age of 87.
Nobel Prize
In 1975, Dausset suspected that his name had been entered in the nominations for the Nobel Prize. However, nothing came of this until February 1980, when rumours were circulating in the scientific community about his possible candidacy. At this point, Dausset was planning on going to QuebecQuebec
Quebec or is a province in east-central Canada. It is the only Canadian province with a predominantly French-speaking population and the only one whose sole official language is French at the provincial level....
, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
to do a conference series throughout the province. He was in a dilemma because if did win, he did not want to be away from his family and colleagues, and yet, were he to stay in France, people would suspect that he was sure of winning and he might set himself up for disappointment. So instead, he decided to stay in Paris, but to stay out of the public eye. He was unsurprisingly awarded the Nobel Prize
Nobel Prize
The Nobel Prizes are annual international awards bestowed by Scandinavian committees in recognition of cultural and scientific advances. The will of the Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, established the prizes in 1895...
1980, which he shared with Baruj Benacerraf
Baruj Benacerraf
Baruj Benacerraf was a Venezuelan-born American immunologist, who shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the "discovery of the major histocompatibility complex genes which encode cell surface protein molecules important for the immune system's distinction between self and...
and George Davis Snell
George Davis Snell
George Davis Snell was an American mouse geneticist and basic transplant immunologist.-Work:George Snell shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Baruj Benacerraf and Jean Dausset for their discoveries concerning "genetically determined structures on the cell surface that...
.
Later life
In 1984 Dausset founded the Centre D’étude du Polymorphisme Humain (CEPH), aiming to detect the major genes in humans that are responsible for diseases outside the HLA systemHuman leukocyte antigen
The human leukocyte antigen system is the name of the major histocompatibility complex in humans. The super locus contains a large number of genes related to immune system function in humans. This group of genes resides on chromosome 6, and encodes cell-surface antigen-presenting proteins and...
. Localization of these genes was a crucial step in cloning and identifying them, this was a breakthrough for medical genetics. The CEPH system contributed DNA
DNA
Deoxyribonucleic acid is a nucleic acid that contains the genetic instructions used in the development and functioning of all known living organisms . The DNA segments that carry this genetic information are called genes, but other DNA sequences have structural purposes, or are involved in...
from 61 large families to international centers that were responsible for mapping the human genome. Dausset and professor LL Cavalli-Sforza
Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza
Luigi Luca Cavalli-Sforza is an Italian population geneticist born in Genoa, who has been a professor at Stanford University since 1970 .-Books:...
collaborated, and developed a DNA resource from world populations known as HGDP-CEPH diversity panel, to be used in human population genetics
Population genetics
Population genetics is the study of allele frequency distribution and change under the influence of the four main evolutionary processes: natural selection, genetic drift, mutation and gene flow. It also takes into account the factors of recombination, population subdivision and population...
. CEPH is a non-profit organisation that was partly funded by the French government, it was not until 1993, that CEPH was renamed the Foundation Jean Dausset-CEPH. In 2003, at the age of 87, Dausset retired and became the president of CEPH.
Dausset was a member of the French Academy of Sciences. He was also a professor at the college de France. Dausset was one of the influential foreign members of the National Academy of Sciences
United States National Academy of Sciences
The National Academy of Sciences is a corporation in the United States whose members serve pro bono as "advisers to the nation on science, engineering, and medicine." As a national academy, new members of the organization are elected annually by current members, based on their distinguished and...
, USA, and an honorary member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is an independent policy research center that conducts multidisciplinary studies of complex and emerging problems. The Academy’s elected members are leaders in the academic disciplines, the arts, business, and public affairs.James Bowdoin, John Adams, and...
. He was a member of the founding Council and Vice President of the Human Genome Organization. Dausset received various prestigious prizes, such as the Landsteiner Award and prizes for the Koch and Wolf Foundations. He also served on the advisory boards of numerous research institutions.
External links
- Jean Dausset - Daily Telegraph obituary
- Death of Nobel Prize in Medicine, Jean Dausset. Le Monde, Paris, June 6, 2009. In French
- CEPH - Official Site of the CEPH