Charles Janeway

Charles Alderson Janeway, Jr. ( born February 5, 1943 in Boston, Massachusetts, † 12 April 2003 in New Haven, Connecticut ) was one of the most outstanding immunologists of his time. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (USA) and Professor at Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut, USA.

His research led him, among others, the National Institute for Medical Research in London (1965-1967), at the University of Cambridge, England (1969) and the University of Uppsala in Sweden ( 1975-1977 ).

Charles Janeway has directed one of the first his attention to the innate immune system. He was able to show that the innate system not only serves directly after the birth of the rapid defense against pathogens, but in particular represents a kind of mentor for the establishment of a functioning immune system. The innate system made ​​possible by a pattern recognition to distinguish between self and foreign organisms, thus enabling the acquired system specifically directed against the foreign invaders his defense.

Among many other honors and awards he has been awarded the Avery - Landsteiner Prize of the German Society for Immunology and the William B. Coley Award. In the years 1997/1998 he served as president of the American Association of Immunologists.

In addition to his research Charles Janeway was very involved in teaching. So he has to be the author of a standard textbook of immunology ' Immunobiology - the immune system in Health and Disease ' ( German edition appeared in Spektrum Akademischer Verlag) made ​​an international name.