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Celebrating
100 Years
Nobel Laureates of AAI
Baruj Benacerraf, M.D.
(1921–2011)
Baruj Benacerraf, M.D., AAI ’57,
president 1973–74, was awarded the 1980
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine jointly
with George Snell and Jean Dausset (AAI ’75)
for their pioneering studies on the major histocompatibility complex (MHC). Benacerraf demonstrated that genetic factors regulate an individual’s immune responses. This discovery shed
light on the association of certain autoimmune
diseases with particular MHC antigens and the
variations in individuals’ abilities to respond to
pathogens and cancers.
Scientific Accomplishments
The immune response (Ir) genes discovered by
Benacerraf were found to map within the MHC
and were subsequently shown to code
for MHC class II molecules. The discovery of
Ir genes provided the basis for the finding by
several laboratories that the presentation of antigen to T cell and the interactions of T and
B cells are “restricted” by the MHC.1
Among his many contributions to the field of
immunology, Benacerraf also helped develop
our understanding of the phagocytic activity of
macrophages, described the functions of IgG
subclasses, discovered Fc receptors, demonstrated that T and B cells recognize antigens
differently, and observed how B and T cells
cooperate with each other to generate an antibody response. Benacerraf helped elucidate the
relationship between allorecognition and the T
cell response to foreign antigens presented by
self-MHC molecules, and he was among the first
to study suppressor T cells.2
According to colleagues Ronald Germain
(AAI ’78) and Steven Burakoff (AAI ’78),
Benacerraf helped bring the “disparate themes
in immunology under a single conceptual
framework.”3
Biography
Born to Sephardic Jewish parents in Caracas,
Venezuela, on October 29, 1920, Baruj Benacerraf grew up in Paris, where his family lived
until the threat of Second World War led them
to return to Venezuela in the late 1930s. Although his parents hoped Baruj would follow in
his father’s footsteps and run the family textile
business, he insisted on studying science at Columbia University, where he earned his B.S. in
1942. He applied to twenty-five medical schools,
including several at which he later worked, but
was rejected by all of them. Recalling his difficulty gaining admission, Benacerraf later in life
reflected to the Boston Globe, “This country was
strongly anti-Semitic in the 1940s. There were
quotas. In addition, there was a tendency not to
take in foreigners.” With the help of a friend, he
was admitted to the Medical College of Virginia
in Richmond in 1943, the same year in which he
became a naturalized U.S. citizen.4
Celebrating
100 Years
After completing his M.D. in 1945, Benacerraf interned at Queens General Hospital in
New York and served in the U.S. Army Medical
Corps in France for two years before beginning his training in immunology as an unpaid
research fellow in Elvin Kabat’s (AAI ’43, president 1965–66) laboratory at the Neurological
Institute of Columbia University Medical Center in 1948. He reportedly chose immunology
because he had suffered from asthma as a child
and wanted to find out why the body sometimes
responds so drastically to allergens.5
Benacerraf moved to Broussais Hospital in
Paris to work in the immunology lab of Bernard
Halpern, the discoverer of antihistamines, in
1949. He returned to the United States in 1956
and accepted a position as professor of pathology at New York University School of Medicine,
where he conducted his pioneering research.
He directed the immunology laboratory at the
National Institute of Allergy and Infectious
Diseases from 1968 to 1970. Desiring a return
to academic life, he accepted an appointment as
chair of the Department of Comparative Pathology at Harvard Medical School in 1970. In 1980,
he left Harvard to serve as president and CEO of
the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, a position he
held until his retirement in 1991.6
Benacerraf shared a love of the arts with his
wife, Annette Dreyfus, whom he married in
1943. In addition to collecting art and regularly
attending the theater, the couple enjoyed
classical music and often performed duets for
friends, with Baruj on flute and Annette on
harpsichord.7
Benacerraf died on August 2, 2011, at his home
in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, at the age of 90.
Awards and Honors
Benacerraf was a member of the American
Academy of Arts and Sciences (1971), the
National Academy of Sciences (1973), and the
Institute of Medicine (1982).
He also received many awards and honors
over the course of his career. He delivered the
R. E. Dyer Lecture at the National Institutes
of Health (1969). He was awarded the Rabbi
Shai Shacknai Prize in Immunology and Cancer Research from Hebrew University in Jerusalem (1974), the T. Duckett Jones Memorial
Award from the Helen Hay Whitney Foundation (1976), the Waterford Biomedical Science
Award (1980), the National Medal of Science
(1990), the Gold-Headed Cane Award of the
American Society of Investigative Pathology
(1996), and the Charles A. Dana Award (1996).
Benacerraf was the recipient of the 2001 AAI
Excellence in Mentoring Award.
AAI Service
Benacerraf played an active role in AAI leadership, serving as councillor (1968–72), vicepresident (1972–73), and president (1973–74).
Following his presidency, Benacerraf remained
active in AAI leadership, serving on the AAI
Awards Committee (chair, 1977–78), Finance
Committee (co-chair, 1981–84), Nominating
Committee (chair, 1985–86), and Public Affairs
Committee (1989–91). Having previously served
as an associate editor of The Journal of Immunology (1968–77), he became a member of its
editorial board (1972–79). Benacerraf was an
AAI Distinguished Lecturer at the 1980 annual
meeting and a featured speaker at the 75th AAI
Anniversary Symposium (1988), “Immunology in Perspective.” He also, as a member of
two AAI committees, helped organize the First
International Congress of Immunology, held
in Washington, DC in 1971: the ad hoc Steering Committee for International Congress [of
Immunology] (1968–69) and the First International Congress of Immunology Organizing
Committee (1971–72).
Celebrating
100 Years
1 “Baruj Benacerraf,” World of Health (Gale, 2006).
2 Ronald N. Germain and Steven J. Burakoff, “A Remembrance of Baruj Benacerraf (AAI ’57), 1920–2011,”
The Journal of Immunology 187 (2011): 5465–69.
3Ibid.
4 “Baruj Benacerraf,” Encyclopedia of World Biography (Gale, 2007).
5 “Baruj Benacerraf,” World of Health.
6 “Baruj Benacerraf,” Encyclopedia of World Biography.
7 Germain and Burakoff, “A Remembrance of Banuj Benacerraf.”
Photo: University of Maryland, Baltimore County, The American Association of Immunologists Records