List of immunologists
Encyclopedia
Pioneers
- Edward JennerEdward JennerEdward Anthony Jenner was an English scientist who studied his natural surroundings in Berkeley, Gloucestershire...
(1749-1823), discovered that cowpoxCowpoxCowpox is a skin disease caused by a virus known as the Cowpox virus. The pox is related to the vaccinia virus and got its name from the distribution of the disease when dairymaids touched the udders of infected cows. The ailment manifests itself in the form of red blisters and is transmitted by...
induces protection against smallpoxSmallpoxSmallpox was an infectious disease unique to humans, caused by either of two virus variants, Variola major and Variola minor. The disease is also known by the Latin names Variola or Variola vera, which is a derivative of the Latin varius, meaning "spotted", or varus, meaning "pimple"... - Louis PasteurLouis PasteurLouis Pasteur was a French chemist and microbiologist born in Dole. He is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases. His discoveries reduced mortality from puerperal fever, and he created the first vaccine for rabies and anthrax. His experiments...
(1822-1895), his experiments confirmed the germ theory of diseaseGerm theory of diseaseThe germ theory of disease, also called the pathogenic theory of medicine, is a theory that proposes that microorganisms are the cause of many diseases...
, he also created the first vaccineVaccineA vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...
for rabiesRabiesRabies is a viral disease that causes acute encephalitis in warm-blooded animals. It is zoonotic , most commonly by a bite from an infected animal. For a human, rabies is almost invariably fatal if post-exposure prophylaxis is not administered prior to the onset of severe symptoms...
Nobel laureates
- 1901 Emil Adolf von BehringEmil Adolf von BehringEmil Adolf von Behring was a German physiologist who received the 1901 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, the first one so awarded.-Biography:...
(1854-1917), "for his serum therapy to treat diphtheriaDiphtheriaDiphtheria is an upper respiratory tract illness caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae, a facultative anaerobic, Gram-positive bacterium. It is characterized by sore throat, low fever, and an adherent membrane on the tonsils, pharynx, and/or nasal cavity...
" (First ever Nobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineNobel Prize in Physiology or MedicineThe 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...
) - 1908 Eli MetchnikoffIlya Ilyich MechnikovIlya Ilyich Mechnikov was a Russian biologist, zoologist and protozoologist, best remembered for his pioneering research into the immune system. Mechnikov received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1908, shared with Paul Ehrlich, for his work on phagocytosis...
(1845-1916) and 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"...
(1854-1915), "for study of the immune system" - 1919 Jules BordetJules BordetJules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet was a Belgian immunologist and microbiologist. The bacterial genus Bordetella is named after him.-Biography:Bordet was born at Soignies, Belgium...
(1870-1961), "for discovery of the complement systemComplement systemThe complement system helps or “complements” the ability of antibodies and phagocytic cells to clear pathogens from an organism. It is part of the immune system called the innate immune system that is not adaptable and does not change over the course of an individual's lifetime...
in the immune system" - 1930 Karl LandsteinerKarl LandsteinerKarl Landsteiner , was an Austrian-born American biologist and physician of Jewish origin. He is noted for having first distinguished the main blood groups in 1900, having developed the modern system of classification of blood groups from his identification of the presence of agglutinins in the...
(1868-1943), "for discovery of human blood types" - 1960 Peter B. Medawar (1915-1987) and Frank Macfarlane BurnetFrank Macfarlane BurnetSir Frank Macfarlane Burnet, , usually known as Macfarlane or Mac Burnet, was an Australian virologist best known for his contributions to immunology....
(1899-1985), "for the discovery that the immune system of the fetus learns how to distinguish between self and non-self" - 1972 Gerald Maurice Edelman (1929-) and Rodney Robert PorterRodney Robert PorterRodney Robert Porter, FRS was an English biochemist and Nobel laureate.Born in Newton-le-Willows, St Helens, Lancashire, England, Rodney Robert Porter received his Bachelors of Sciences degree from the University of Liverpool in 1939 for Biochemistry. He moved to the University of Cambridge where...
(1917-1985), "for discovering the chemical structure of antibodies" - 1980 Baruj BenacerrafBaruj BenacerrafBaruj 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...
(1920-), Jean DaussetJean DaussetJean-Baptiste-Gabriel-Joachim Dausset was a French immunologist born in Toulouse, France. He married Rose Mayoral in 1963, with whom he had two children, Henri and Irène...
(1916-2009) and George Davis SnellGeorge Davis SnellGeorge 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...
(1903-1996), "for discovery of the Major histocompatibility complex genes which encode cell surface molecules important for the immune system's distinction between self and non-self" - 1984 Niels Jerne (1911-1994), Georges J. F. KöhlerGeorges J. F. Köhler-External links:* http://www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1984/...
(1946-1995) and César MilsteinCésar MilsteinCésar Milstein FRS was an Argentine biochemist in the field of antibody research. Milstein shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1984 with Niels K. Jerne and Georges Köhler.-Biography:...
(1927-2002) "for work on the immune system and the production of monoclonal antibodies" - 1987 Susumu TonegawaSusumu TonegawaSusumu Tonegawa is a Japanese scientist who won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1987 for his discovery of the genetic mechanism that produces antibody diversity. Although he won the Nobel Prize for his work in immunology, Tonegawa is a molecular biologist by training...
(1939-), "for discovering how the large diversity of antibodies is produced genetically" - 1989 J. Michael BishopJ. Michael Bishop-External links:**...
(1936-) and Harold E. VarmusHarold E. VarmusHarold Elliot Varmus is an American Nobel Prize-winning scientist and the 14th and current Director of the National Cancer Institute, a post he was appointed to by President Barack Obama. He was a co-recipient Harold Elliot Varmus (born December 18, 1939) is an American Nobel Prize-winning...
(1939-), "for discovering the cellular origins of retroviral oncogenes" - 1996 Peter C. Doherty (1940-) and Rolf M. ZinkernagelRolf M. ZinkernagelRolf Martin Zinkernagel AC is Professor of Experimental Immunology at the University of Zurich.-Career:...
(1944-) "for describing how MHC molecules are used by white blood cells to detect and kill virus-infected cells." - 2011 Bruce Alan Beutler(1957-), Jules A. HoffmannJules A. HoffmannJules A. Hoffmann is a Luxembourgish-born French biologist. He is a research director and member of the board of administrators of the National Center of Scientific Research in Strasbourg, France. In 2007, he became President of the French Academy of Sciences...
(1941-) " for their discoveries concerning the activation of innate immunity" and Ralph Marvin Steinman (1943-2011)"for his discovery of the dendritic cell and its role in adaptive immunity"
Notable Immunologists
Do not add names to this section unless there is also a biography available- Alan AderemAlan AderemAlan Aderem is a biologist, specializing in immunology and cell biology. Dr. Aderem's particular focus is the innate immune system, the part of the immune system that responds generically to pathogens....
, innate immunity - Lorne BabiukLorne BabiukLorne Allan Babiuk, is a Canadian scientist specializing in immunology, pathogenesis, virology, molecular virology, and vaccinology. He is the Vice-President of Research at the University of Alberta and the former Director of the Vaccine and Infectious Disease Organization at the University of...
- Kiril BratanovKiril BratanovKiril Tsochev Bratanov was a prominent Bulgarian biologist and pioneer in the area of immunology of reproduction.He was born on March 5, 1911, in the town of Lukovit, Bulgaria, and studied veterinary medicine at the University of Sofia. After receiving his doctoral degree in 1935, he spent two...
(1911-1986), pioneer in the area of immunology of reproduction - William ColeyWilliam ColeyWilliam Bradley Coley was an American bone surgeon and cancer researcher, pioneer of cancer immunotherapy. He developed a treatment based on provoking an immune response to bacteria...
(1862-1936), pioneer of cancer immunotherapy - Albert CoonsAlbert CoonsAlbert Hewett Coons, M.D. was an American physician, pathologist, and immunologist. He was the first person to conceptualize and develop immunofluorescent techniques for labeling antibodies in the early 1940s....
(1912–1978), developed immunofluorescentImmunofluorescenceImmunofluorescence is a technique used for light microscopy with a fluorescence microscope and is used primarily on biological samples. This technique uses the specificity of antibodies to their antigen to target fluorescent dyes to specific biomolecule targets within a cell, and therefore allows...
techniques for labelling antibodies - Eva EngvallEva EngvallEva Engvall, born 1940, is one of the scientists who invented ELISA in 1971.-Vita:Dr. Engvall earned her Ph.D. from the University of Stockholm in 1975. Her postdoctoral work was done at the University of Helsinki and City of Hope National Medical Center in California, where she was subsequently...
, one of the scientists who invented ELISAELISAEnzyme-linked immunosorbent assay , is a popular format of a "wet-lab" type analytic biochemistry assay that uses one sub-type of heterogeneous, solid-phase enzyme immunoassay to detect the presence of a substance in a liquid sample."Wet lab" analytic biochemistry assays involves detection of an...
in 1971. - Denise FaustmanDenise FaustmanDenise L. Faustman, is a U.S. physician and medical researcher. An Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard University and Director of the Immunobiology Laboratory at Massachusetts General Hospital, her work specializes in diabetes mellitus type 1 and other autoimmune diseases...
Type 1 diabetes - Ian FrazerIan FrazerProfessor Ian Frazer is the Director of the Diamantina Institute. He is a creator of the HPV vaccine against cervical cancer; the second cancer preventing vaccine, and the first vaccine designed to prevent a cancer. .- Education:He was born in Glasgow, Scotland...
development of a cervical cancerCervical cancerCervical cancer is malignant neoplasm of the cervix uteri or cervical area. One of the most common symptoms is abnormal vaginal bleeding, but in some cases there may be no obvious symptoms until the cancer is in its advanced stages...
vaccineVaccineA vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins... - Samuel O. FreedmanSamuel O. FreedmanSamuel Orkin Freedman, OC, CQ, FRSC is a Canadian clinical immunologist, professor and academic administrator. In 1965, he co-discovered with Phil Gold the carcinoembryonic antigen, the basis of a blood test used in the diagnosis and management of people with colorectal cancer.Born in Montreal,...
discovered Carcinoembryonic antigenCarcinoembryonic antigenCarcinoembryonic antigen is a glycoprotein involved in cell adhesion. It is normally produced during fetal development, but the production of CEA stops before birth. Therefore, it is not usually present in the blood of healthy adults, although levels are raised in heavy smokers... - Jules T. FreundJules T. FreundJules T Freund was an Hungarian-born American immunologist.-See also:* Freund's adjuvant...
(1890-1960) - Sankar GhoshSankar GhoshSankar Ghosh is an Indian immunologist and microbiologist, who is the chair of the Department of Microbiology & Immunology at Columbia University Medical Center...
- John GrangeJohn GrangeProfessor John Grange is an English; immunologist, epidemiologist, researcher, and academic, and is one of Europe's leading tuberculosis specialists.-Education:...
- Waldemar HaffkineWaldemar HaffkineWaldemar Mordecai Wolff Haffkine, CIE was a Russian Jewish bacteriologist, whose career was blighted in Russia because "he refused to convert to Russian Orthodoxy." He emigrated and worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, where he developed an anti-cholera vaccine that he tried out successfully...
(1860-1930), was the first microbiologist who developed and used vaccines against cholera and bubonic plague. - Michael HeidelbergerMichael HeidelbergerMichael Heidelberger was an American immunologist who is regarded as the father of modern immunology. He and Oswald Avery showed that the polysaccharides of pneumococcus are antigens, enabling him to show that antibodies are proteins...
(1888–1991), showed that antibodies are proteins. - Leonard HerzenbergLeonard HerzenbergLeonard Arthur "Len" Herzenberg is an immunologist, geneticist and professor at Stanford University. His contribututions to the development of cell biology made it possible to sort viable cells by their specific properties....
- Miroslav HolubMiroslav HolubMiroslav Holub was a Czech poet and immunologist.Miroslav Holub's work was heavily influenced by his experiences as an Immunologist, writing many poems using his scientific knowledge to poetic effect. His work is almost always unrhymed, so lends itself easily to translation...
(1923-1998) - Charles JanewayCharles JanewayCharles Alderson Janeway, Jr. was a noted immunologist. A member of the National Academy of Sciences, he held a faculty position at Yale University's Medical School and was an HHMI Investigator....
(1943-2003), wrote the standard textbook Immunobiology - Dermot Kelleher
- Tadamitsu Kishimoto
- Jan KleinJan KleinJan Klein is a Czech-American immunologist, best known for his work on the major histocompatibility complex . He was born in 1936 in Stemplovec, Opava, Czech Republic. He graduated from the Charles University at Prague, in 1955, and received his M.S. in Botany from the same school in 1958...
, Mhc - Tak Wah MakTak Wah MakTak Wah Mak, OC OOnt FRS FRSC is an award-winning Canadian researcher who has worked in a variety of areas including biochemistry, immunology, and cancer genetics...
- Polly MatzingerPolly MatzingerPolly Celine Eveline Matzinger is an iconoclastic scientist who proposed a novel explanation of how the immune system works, called the danger model.-Early years:...
, immunological tolerance, Danger Model, Hyppo Model - Ira MellmanIra MellmanIra Mellman, Ph.D. is an American cell biologist who discovered endosomes. He serves as Vice President of Research Oncology at Genentech in South San Francisco, California.-Research:...
- Jacques MillerJacques MillerJacques Francis Albert Pierre Miller AC FRS is a distinguished research scientist. He is famous for having discovered the function of the thymus and for the identification, in mammalian species of the two major subsets of lymphocytes and their function.-Early life:Miller was born on 2 April 1931,...
- Avrion MitchisonAvrion MitchisonThe Honourable Avrion "Av" Mitchison FRS is a British zoologist and immunologist.- Biography :Mitchison was born in 1928, the son of the Labour politician Dick Mitchison and his wife, the writer Naomi . His uncle was the biologist J.B.S...
- Michael NeubergerMichael NeubergerMichael Samuel Neuberger FRS is a British biochemist and immunologist.-Education:He was educated at Westminster School, and then read Natural Sciences at Trinity College, Cambridge as a scholar where he obtained a Master of Arts; he then obtained a PhD at Imperial College, London.-Career:He has...
- Alan MunroAlan MunroAlan James Munro is a British immunologist and entrepreneur.Munro was born in Madras, India and educated at the Edinburgh Academy. He attended the University of Cambridge, specialising in biochemistry...
- Gustav NossalGustav NossalSir Gustav Victor Joseph Nossal, AC, CBE, FRS, FAA is an Australian research biologist.-Life and career:Gustav Nossal's family was from Vienna, Austria. He was born four weeks prematurely in Bad Ischl while his mother was on holiday...
- Santa J. OnoSanta J. OnoSanta J. Ono is a Canadian-American biologist and university administrator. He is currently Senior Vice President and University Provost at the University of Cincinnati.-Biography:...
- Fred RosenFred RosenFred S. Rosen was a paediatrician and immunologist at Harvard Medical School, Harvard Center for Blood Research, and Children's Hospital of Boston. He was also an expert in antique furniture....
(1930-2005), discovered, the cause of X-linked hyper IgM syndromeHyper IgM syndromeHyper IgM syndrome is a family of genetic disorders in which the level of Immunoglobulin M antibodies is relatively high. The most common type is a result of a defect in a Th2 cell protein . The disorder causes immunodeficiencies, including a higher than normal susceptibility to various types of...
. - Richard R. Rosenthal
- Emil SkameneEmil SkameneEmil Skamene, is a Canadian Immunologist and medical researcher.He is the Director of Research for the McGill University Health Centre, the Director of the Centre for the Study of Host Resistance, and a Professor in the Department of Medicine, the Department of Human Genetics, and the Institute...
- David TalmageDavid TalmageDavid W. Talmage is an American immunologist. He made significant contributions to the clonal selection theory.-Career:Talmage received his MD from Washington University in St. Louis in 1944. From 1959 he was Professor of medicine at the University of Colorado, Professor of microbiology from 1960...
clonal selectionClonal selectionThe clonal selection hypothesis has become a widely accepted model for how the immune system responds to infection and how certain types of B and T lymphocytes are selected for destruction of specific antigens invading the body....
theory - Reyes TamezReyes TamezReyes Tamez Guerra is a Mexican immunochemist. He is a former Secretary of Education for the State of Nuevo Leon, a former president of the Autonomous University of Nuevo León and a former Secretary of Education in the cabinet of Vicente Fox .-Biography:Tamez Guerra graduated from the Autonomous...
- Kevin J. TraceyKevin J. TraceyKevin J. Tracey, a scientist and inventor, was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana on 10 December 1957. He is President of the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research and Professor and President of the Elmezzi Graduate School of Molecular Medicine in Manhasset, New York.-Education:Kevin J. Tracey...
- Jan VilcekJan VilcekJan T. Vilček M.D., Ph.D. is a biomedical scientist, educator, inventor and philanthropist. He is currently a professor in the Department of Microbiology at the New York University School of Medicine and President of The Vilcek Foundation....
- Ellen VitettaEllen VitettaEllen Vitetta is the director of the Cancer Immunobiology Center at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.Vitetta is an immunologist who does translational research. She and her colleagues first described IgD on the surface of murine B cells and she was the co-discoverer...
- Alexander S. WienerAlexander S. WienerAlexander Solomon Wiener , a lifelong resident of New York City, was recognized internationally for his contributions to medicine. He was an outstanding leader in the fields of forensic medicine, serology, and immunogenetics. His pioneer work led to discovery of the Rh factor in 1937, along with Dr...
(1907-1976) - Don Wiley (1944-2001), crystallography of HLAHuman leukocyte antigenThe 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...
proteins - Ian Wilson (biologist)Ian Wilson (biologist)Ian Andrew Wilson is a professor at the Scripps Research Institute in San Diego, California, United States.He received his B.Sc. in Biochemistry from the University of Edinburgh in 1971, his PhD degree in Molecular Biophysics from Oxford University in 1976 and did postdoctoral research at Harvard...
- Ernst WitebskyErnst WitebskyErnst Witebsky, also Ernest Witebsky was a German-American immunologist.From 1920 to 1926 Witebsky studied medicine at the University of Frankfurt and the University of Heidelberg. He stayed at Heidelberg after graduating and worked with Dr. Hans Sachs...
(1901-1969), isolation and partial characterization of A and B blood antigens - Ivan RoittIvan RoittProfessor Ivan Maurice Roitt was educated at King Edward's School, Birmingham and Balliol College, Oxford University.In 1956, together with Deborah Doniach and Peter Campbell, he made the classic discovery of thyroglobulin autoantibodies in Hashimoto's thyroiditis which helped to open the whole...
- James S. TanJames S. TanJames S. Tan was an American medical doctor who specialized in infectious diseases, immunology, and internal medicine. He was the author of several medical books and many medical articles.Tan was affiliated with Summa Health System....
(1927-2006)
Immunologists in Popular Culture
- Dr Allison Cameron, a character on the television show House M.D.