Baruj Benacerraf | Nobel physician, 90
Baruj Benacerraf, 90, a Venezuela-born immunologist who shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, died Tuesday of pneumonia at his Boston home.
Baruj Benacerraf, 90, a Venezuela-born immunologist who shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, died Tuesday of pneumonia at his Boston home.
A physician-scientist, Mr. Benacerraf discovered that genetic factors played a central role in the function of the immune system. That finding led to a 1980 Nobel Prize for him and colleagues Jean Dausset of the University of Paris and George Snell of Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine.
He also led the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston. As president, he oversaw its expansion and recruited top researchers, where they could also serve as teaching professors at Harvard Medical School. In addition, he chaired the department of pathology and was the George Fabyan professor of comparative pathology at Harvard Medical School from 1970-91.
He stepped down as Dana-Farber president in 1992 but continued working daily in his own lab at Dana-Farber into his 80s and hosted an annual symposium.
"His work has shaped everything from organ transplantation to AIDS treatment to . . . the development of therapeutic cancer vaccines," Dana-Farber president Edward J. Benz Jr. said.
- AP