Must Know
Venezuelan-American pathologist and immunologist, cowinner with of the 1980 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the major histocompatibility comples genes. These genes encode cell surface proteins important for the immune system’s ability to distinguish between self and non-self. Born in Caracas to Moroccan Jewish parents, he moved to Paris with his family in 1925. Emigrated to the US in 1940 and earned his MD from the Medical College of Virginia, the only school to which he was accepted due to his Jewish background. He worked in many famous institutions including Harvard and Columbia University, and was awarded the American National Medal of Science in 1990.
