Elvin A. Kabat

Elvin Abraham Kabat ( born September 1, 1914 in New York City; † June 16, 2000 in Falmouth, Massachusetts ) was an American chemist and immunologist. He served from 1946 to 1985 as a professor at Columbia University and devoted himself to his scientific work, among others, the chemical nature and the structure of antibodies, immunochemical studies on the AB0 antigens as well as studies on experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis. In recognition of his services he was admitted, among other things, 1966 in the National Academy of Sciences, and in 1977 awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize - 1991 with the National Medal of Science.

Life

Elvin Kabat was born in 1914 in New York City and graduated already from the age of 15 years of high school. Then he began studying at the City College of New York, he graduated with a BS degree in 1932 with specialization in chemistry. Then he worked in the laboratory of Michael Heidelberger at Columbia University, where in 1934 he gained an MA and PhD in 1937. As a post-doctoral researcher, he then worked temporarily at the The Svedberg and Arne Tiselius at Uppsala University.

In 1938 he was hired as an assistant professor of pathology at Cornell University. Three years later he moved to Columbia University, where he worked as a research assistant at first, before it there from 1946 to 1952 as a professor of bacteriology, 1952-1985 Professor of Microbiology and since 1969 also professor of human genetics and developmental biology worked. Among his pupils were, among others, Stuart F. Schlossman, and the Nobel laureate Baruj Benacerraf.

Elvin Kabat was married since 1942 and father of three sons, one of which Jon Kabat-Zinn was a professor at the University of Massachusetts and by working was known for dealing with stress and anxiety. He died in 2000 in Falmouth, Massachusetts.

Scientific work

Elvin Kabat, who published around 470 scientific publications in 65 years, was devoted to various aspects of immunological research, and developed his work fundamental contributions to the understanding of inflammation and allergies as well as for transfusion medicine. Together with his supervisor Michael Heidelberger he could show by electrophoresis and ultracentrifugation, that it is the gamma fraction existing in the serum globulins in antibodies. On the basis of molecular weight and the sedimentation rate was able them to distinguish between two different types of antibodies that were later than the immunoglobulin classes, IgG, and IgM. Together with Manfred M. Mayer, another student of Michael Heidelberger, he published the textbook Experimental Immunochemistry, published 1948-1984 in two runs and seven reprints.

In addition, he studied with Michael Heidelberger the precipitin reaction and the effect of agglutinins. After the end of World War II he worked among others with immunochemical studies on the AB0 antigens to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis in monkeys as a model disease for multiple sclerosis in human as well as immune responses to the compound used as a blood substitute substance dextran. Based on its investigations into the interactions between dextran and anti -dextran antibodies succeeded for the first time to estimate the minimum and maximum size, and the spatial form of the antigen binding sites of antibodies. These data were later confirmed by other scientists by crystallographic work on the three-dimensional structure of antibodies.

Awards

Elvin Kabat served 1965/1966 as president of the American Association of Immunologists and was admitted in 1966 to the National Academy of Sciences. He received, among other things, the Weizmann Institute of Science (1982) from Columbia University (1987) and from Northwestern University ( 1994), an honorary doctorate, and in 1949 Eli Lilly and Company Research Award, the 1966 Karl Landsteiner Memorial Award, 1977 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, the 1982 Philip Levine Award, the 1987 Dickson prize in Medicine, 1991, the National Medal of Science in 1995 and the Lifetime Achievement and Lifetime Service Award from the American Association immunologists. Named after Elvin Kabat, awarded annually since 2001, the Heidelberger- Kabat Distinguished Lectureship in Immunology at Columbia University.

Works (selection)

• Blood Group Substances. Their Chemistry and Immunochemistry. New York 1956
• Experimental Immunochemistry. Springfield, IL 1948, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1967, 1971 ( Czech edition: and Experimental imunochemie, Prague 1965; Spanish edition: Inmunoquímica experimental, Mexico City 1968)
• Structural Concepts in Immunology and Immunochemistry. New York 1968, 1976
• Introduction to Immunochemistry and immunology. Berlin 1971