Benacerraf, Baruj

Benacerraf, Baruj (bä`rkh bĕnăs`ərəf), 1920–, American immunologist, b. Caracas, Venezuela, grad. Columbia Univ. (1942). Raised in Paris, he came to the United States at the outset of World War II. He earned his M.D. in 1945 and worked (1950–56) as a researcher in Paris before becoming a professor at New York Univ. (1957–68) and Harvard (1970–). His research led to the discovery of genetic structures that regulate immunological responses, for which he shared (with George Snell and Jean Dausset) the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

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Benacerraf, Baruj (1920–  ) immunologist; born in Caracas, Venezuela. He moved to Paris with his family (1925) and emigrated to the U.S.A. (1940). After his medical internship and U.S. Army service (1945–48), he joined Columbia University (1948–50). He performed research in Paris (1950–56), relocated to New York University (1956–68), moved to the National Institutes of Health (1968–70), then joined Harvard (1970–91), concurrently serving the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, Boston (1980). He began studies of allergy in 1948, and discovered the Ir (immune response) genes that govern transplant rejection (1960s). In 1972 he demonstrated the existence of T and B lymphocytes. He shared the 1980 Nobel Prize for his contributions to cellular immunology. He continued his T-cell research and remained active in many professional societies.