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A tribute to Mohamed Daha
Molecular Immunology 68 (2015) 27
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Molecular Immunology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/molimm
A tribute to Mohamed Daha J.-P. Soulillou University of Nantes, Inserm 1064, France
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 8 June 2015 Accepted 14 June 2015
It is an honor as well as a great pleasure to contribute to this issue devoted to Mohamed Daha, now Emeritus Professor in one of the most renowned faculties of medical science in Europe. No doubt that ex- pupils and colleagues will retrace his numerous scientific contributions, offering me the privilege to take a more meandering route across the fields. This has been a long long way from Mohamed Daha’s “village” in Surinam to Holland, where he obtained his PhD, then on to Boston and then back again to Leiden, and the Netherlands, his country. Indeed, Professor Mohamed Daha’s career is closely linked to that country, which for centuries has often been at the forefront in Europe, not only in science, but even more in social an humanistic terms. Notably, the decision to offer a Dutch passport to Surinam citizens when the country gained independence was a quite unusual opportunity. Half a century later, and after more than 600 articles on PubMed, thinking of his superb career, the first “thought” coming to my mind is of Mohamed’s eternal face of a teenager, with a smile that seems to make any problem easier to solve. Too often age sculpts us notable profiles, but Mohamed has, I think, definitively escaped. His pragmatic, simple and positive character has always been a welcome invitation for those seeking advice and help, (feel free to call him at seven in the morning, this is his favorite time with an empty lab, when he can quietly think). Mohamed Daha’s legacy includes two major achievements. Firstly he was very active and persuasive in widening the role of complement in biology and diseases, placing this tightly regulated unique molecular cascade of innate and acquired immune responses as a central paradigm in pathological processes leading to autoimmune insults, particularly in kidney diseases. His work ranges from animal models to the clinical, with significant fundamental science contributions. Second, Mohamed Daha also trained, and inspired, generations of medical and science students, extending his influence to a number of other medical centers in
E-mail address: [email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.molimm.2015.06.023 0161-5890/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
the Netherland and also improving the access to science of young scientists from his homeland, Surinam. Many of these trainees are now highly-recognized scientists. Mohamed Daha is a humanist, when answering for me some questions from the famous “Proust questionnaire”, he replied that “the intellect of man and especially their capacity to educate people not only in science but in life in general” when asked “What are your favorite qualities in a man? ”. To the question “If not yourself, who would like to be” He answered “ a scientist as famous as those of the 17th century in the Netherlands, and to be involved in science without any need of commercialization”. “Mandela” was the response to “who is your biggest hero in real life”. Many of us, no doubt, have a personal tribute, and some anecdotes, for such a character. My own takes us back to the early eighties when, back from Harvard, where Mohamed preceded me, I decided to organize my first “international” conference in the nascent University Hospital in Nantes, a quite imprudent move as my lab had a head count of only three people at that time! But it turned out to be a success, when Mohamed Daha and two friends of his arrived in a large campervan, I can still see the long curving turn into the “conference” car park, and docked. The two friends were Bob van Es, who was already a respected voice in European nephrology and A. Kijlstra, now professor in Amsterdam (I wish I had been in the van with this trio for the trip, it was, I am sure a hotbed for ideas linking immune complement and nephropathies!). All of them gave super talks, which not only illuminated the conference but gave us the start of some “visibility”. After a night in their van, they left for the North (after another wide turn out of the car park!), leaving a bunch of young French, inspired by their example, waving their hands! Pr. Mohamed Daha is retiring, I rather guess continuing but differently. New adept of the green, but still every week in the lab, still inspiring PhDs, consulting for several Dutch universities, attentive to Surinam education and its young scientists, and still modest, happy, what a lesson for life. Moh!
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Molecular Immunology journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/molimm
A tribute to Mohamed Daha J.-P. Soulillou University of Nantes, Inserm 1064, France
a r t i c l e
i n f o
Article history: Received 8 June 2015 Accepted 14 June 2015
It is an honor as well as a great pleasure to contribute to this issue devoted to Mohamed Daha, now Emeritus Professor in one of the most renowned faculties of medical science in Europe. No doubt that ex- pupils and colleagues will retrace his numerous scientific contributions, offering me the privilege to take a more meandering route across the fields. This has been a long long way from Mohamed Daha’s “village” in Surinam to Holland, where he obtained his PhD, then on to Boston and then back again to Leiden, and the Netherlands, his country. Indeed, Professor Mohamed Daha’s career is closely linked to that country, which for centuries has often been at the forefront in Europe, not only in science, but even more in social an humanistic terms. Notably, the decision to offer a Dutch passport to Surinam citizens when the country gained independence was a quite unusual opportunity. Half a century later, and after more than 600 articles on PubMed, thinking of his superb career, the first “thought” coming to my mind is of Mohamed’s eternal face of a teenager, with a smile that seems to make any problem easier to solve. Too often age sculpts us notable profiles, but Mohamed has, I think, definitively escaped. His pragmatic, simple and positive character has always been a welcome invitation for those seeking advice and help, (feel free to call him at seven in the morning, this is his favorite time with an empty lab, when he can quietly think). Mohamed Daha’s legacy includes two major achievements. Firstly he was very active and persuasive in widening the role of complement in biology and diseases, placing this tightly regulated unique molecular cascade of innate and acquired immune responses as a central paradigm in pathological processes leading to autoimmune insults, particularly in kidney diseases. His work ranges from animal models to the clinical, with significant fundamental science contributions. Second, Mohamed Daha also trained, and inspired, generations of medical and science students, extending his influence to a number of other medical centers in
E-mail address: [email protected] http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.molimm.2015.06.023 0161-5890/© 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
the Netherland and also improving the access to science of young scientists from his homeland, Surinam. Many of these trainees are now highly-recognized scientists. Mohamed Daha is a humanist, when answering for me some questions from the famous “Proust questionnaire”, he replied that “the intellect of man and especially their capacity to educate people not only in science but in life in general” when asked “What are your favorite qualities in a man? ”. To the question “If not yourself, who would like to be” He answered “ a scientist as famous as those of the 17th century in the Netherlands, and to be involved in science without any need of commercialization”. “Mandela” was the response to “who is your biggest hero in real life”. Many of us, no doubt, have a personal tribute, and some anecdotes, for such a character. My own takes us back to the early eighties when, back from Harvard, where Mohamed preceded me, I decided to organize my first “international” conference in the nascent University Hospital in Nantes, a quite imprudent move as my lab had a head count of only three people at that time! But it turned out to be a success, when Mohamed Daha and two friends of his arrived in a large campervan, I can still see the long curving turn into the “conference” car park, and docked. The two friends were Bob van Es, who was already a respected voice in European nephrology and A. Kijlstra, now professor in Amsterdam (I wish I had been in the van with this trio for the trip, it was, I am sure a hotbed for ideas linking immune complement and nephropathies!). All of them gave super talks, which not only illuminated the conference but gave us the start of some “visibility”. After a night in their van, they left for the North (after another wide turn out of the car park!), leaving a bunch of young French, inspired by their example, waving their hands! Pr. Mohamed Daha is retiring, I rather guess continuing but differently. New adept of the green, but still every week in the lab, still inspiring PhDs, consulting for several Dutch universities, attentive to Surinam education and its young scientists, and still modest, happy, what a lesson for life. Moh!