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1996 Medawar Prize citation for Professor Jean Dausset
ELSEVIEK
1996 Medawar F.T.
Prize Citation for Professor Jean Dausset
Rapaport*
HE MEDAWAR PRIZE is awarded biennially for a major scientific discovery or a focused body of work in immunobiology or experimental and clinical transplantation.’ We now gather to honor the 1996 laureates. It is my particular pleasure to introduce Jean Dausset as the recipient of this ultimate accolade of world transplantation. This ceremony will hopefully lay to rest the persistent grumblings about the relevance of HLA, which have continued to this day. Wiser heads have long recognized the transcendental role of HLA, and Dausset has already been awarded the Wolfe Prize in 1978, and the Nobel Prize in 1980. Now, in 1996, I am happy to see the transplantation community join in the celebration. Dausset is the son of the founder of physical medicine in France. After a happy childhood, he grew into a tall, thin introspective young man. who completed his medical education in Paris, and was then rapidly thrust into the tragic events of World War II. He served in the French Army in the African desert, and met a prisoner of war, a German officer, with whom he frequently played chess. Perhaps as a result, he embarked on a career in immunohematology, and discovered leukocyte antibodies,’ leading to the definition of the first leukocyte group, Mac.3 This marked the beginning of a lifelong study of the significance of these antibodies and of their genetic basis. One of the key questions at this time was the relevance of these antibodies to transplantation, and serendipity now took a strong hold in the saga. In 1962, my chief, the late John Marquis Converse, met Dausset at a symposium in Padua, and told him of our NYU skin graft studies, which had just shown the existence of tissue groups in man, and Dausset told Converse of his leukoglutinins. They decided to join forces in a collaborative transatlantic effort,’ and before I knew it, I was in Paris to begin the project! Dausset had a large office at the Hopital St Louis; this now became an operating theater, on about three or four occasions per year. In the next 15 years. over 900 skin grafts were performed, first between unrelated volunteers and then within families, including Dausset himself. The importance of leukocyte groups in transplantation was demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt by these skin grafts.5 In parallel with this surgical effort, what was initially HU-1 evolved into HLA; the chromosome bearing the
T
0 1997 by Elsevier Science Inc. 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010
HLA supergene was identified, and matters reached a high state of complexity.6 One of the remarkable elements of this entire saga has been the recruitment, at the Hopital St Louis, of a unique band of volunteer skin and blood donors, who represented all walks of French life. As the importance of HLA became recognized, our volunteers knew that they were making medical history. They even predicted the outcome of the adventure in 1968-a dream which came true in 1980, when Dausset was awarded the Nobel Prize. Through it all, Jean Dausset has remained the same tireless, inquisitive scientist, whose legendary intuitive powers have recently resulted in the establishment of the Center for the Study of Human Polymorphism, in Paris, leading to rapid progress in the elucidation of the human genome. He remains an enthusiastic globe trotter, and is a loving husband and father, whose family has been his perennial “home team.” He continues to be the same modest and unassuming figure who, during World War II, when he joined the Army, gave all of his identification papers to a Jewish colleague at the Pasteur Institute, allowing him to survive the entire Nazi occupation of Paris as “Monsieur Dausset.” Mr president, ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to present Jean Dausset as a 1996 Medawar Prize Laureate. REFERENCES I. Rapaport FT: Transplant Proc 27:9, 1995 2. Daussct J, Nenna A: Compj Rendus Sor Biol (Paris) 146: 1539. 1952 3. Dausset J: Acta Haematol (Base]) 20:156. 1958 4. Converse JM: J Plas Reconstruc Surg 70:255, 1982 5. Rapaport FT. Dausset J, Legrand L, et al: J Clin Invest 47:2206, 1968 6. Terasaki PI (ed): Histocompatibility Testing 1980. LOSAngeles. Calif: UCLA Typing Lab, 1980
*Historian of the Transplantation Society. From the Transplantation Service, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York, USA. Address reprint requests to Felix T. Rapaport, MD, Transplantation Service, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Health Sciences Center, T-19, Room 040, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8192.
0041-l 345/97/$17.00 PII SO041 -1345(96)00003-6
31
Transplantation
Proceedings,
29, 31 (1997)
1996 Medawar F.T.
Prize Citation for Professor Jean Dausset
Rapaport*
HE MEDAWAR PRIZE is awarded biennially for a major scientific discovery or a focused body of work in immunobiology or experimental and clinical transplantation.’ We now gather to honor the 1996 laureates. It is my particular pleasure to introduce Jean Dausset as the recipient of this ultimate accolade of world transplantation. This ceremony will hopefully lay to rest the persistent grumblings about the relevance of HLA, which have continued to this day. Wiser heads have long recognized the transcendental role of HLA, and Dausset has already been awarded the Wolfe Prize in 1978, and the Nobel Prize in 1980. Now, in 1996, I am happy to see the transplantation community join in the celebration. Dausset is the son of the founder of physical medicine in France. After a happy childhood, he grew into a tall, thin introspective young man. who completed his medical education in Paris, and was then rapidly thrust into the tragic events of World War II. He served in the French Army in the African desert, and met a prisoner of war, a German officer, with whom he frequently played chess. Perhaps as a result, he embarked on a career in immunohematology, and discovered leukocyte antibodies,’ leading to the definition of the first leukocyte group, Mac.3 This marked the beginning of a lifelong study of the significance of these antibodies and of their genetic basis. One of the key questions at this time was the relevance of these antibodies to transplantation, and serendipity now took a strong hold in the saga. In 1962, my chief, the late John Marquis Converse, met Dausset at a symposium in Padua, and told him of our NYU skin graft studies, which had just shown the existence of tissue groups in man, and Dausset told Converse of his leukoglutinins. They decided to join forces in a collaborative transatlantic effort,’ and before I knew it, I was in Paris to begin the project! Dausset had a large office at the Hopital St Louis; this now became an operating theater, on about three or four occasions per year. In the next 15 years. over 900 skin grafts were performed, first between unrelated volunteers and then within families, including Dausset himself. The importance of leukocyte groups in transplantation was demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt by these skin grafts.5 In parallel with this surgical effort, what was initially HU-1 evolved into HLA; the chromosome bearing the
T
0 1997 by Elsevier Science Inc. 655 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10010
HLA supergene was identified, and matters reached a high state of complexity.6 One of the remarkable elements of this entire saga has been the recruitment, at the Hopital St Louis, of a unique band of volunteer skin and blood donors, who represented all walks of French life. As the importance of HLA became recognized, our volunteers knew that they were making medical history. They even predicted the outcome of the adventure in 1968-a dream which came true in 1980, when Dausset was awarded the Nobel Prize. Through it all, Jean Dausset has remained the same tireless, inquisitive scientist, whose legendary intuitive powers have recently resulted in the establishment of the Center for the Study of Human Polymorphism, in Paris, leading to rapid progress in the elucidation of the human genome. He remains an enthusiastic globe trotter, and is a loving husband and father, whose family has been his perennial “home team.” He continues to be the same modest and unassuming figure who, during World War II, when he joined the Army, gave all of his identification papers to a Jewish colleague at the Pasteur Institute, allowing him to survive the entire Nazi occupation of Paris as “Monsieur Dausset.” Mr president, ladies and gentlemen, it is my privilege to present Jean Dausset as a 1996 Medawar Prize Laureate. REFERENCES I. Rapaport FT: Transplant Proc 27:9, 1995 2. Daussct J, Nenna A: Compj Rendus Sor Biol (Paris) 146: 1539. 1952 3. Dausset J: Acta Haematol (Base]) 20:156. 1958 4. Converse JM: J Plas Reconstruc Surg 70:255, 1982 5. Rapaport FT. Dausset J, Legrand L, et al: J Clin Invest 47:2206, 1968 6. Terasaki PI (ed): Histocompatibility Testing 1980. LOSAngeles. Calif: UCLA Typing Lab, 1980
*Historian of the Transplantation Society. From the Transplantation Service, State University of New York, Stony Brook, New York, USA. Address reprint requests to Felix T. Rapaport, MD, Transplantation Service, State University of New York at Stony Brook, Health Sciences Center, T-19, Room 040, Stony Brook, NY 11794-8192.
0041-l 345/97/$17.00 PII SO041 -1345(96)00003-6
31
Transplantation
Proceedings,
29, 31 (1997)