Emil R. Unanue
Emil Raphael Unanue (* September 13, 1934 in Havana, Cuba ) is a Cuban- American pathologist and immunologist.
Life
Unanue earned a bachelor's degree in 1952 in Havana and graduated in 1960 his medical studies at the University of Havana. 1961/1962 he worked as a medical assistant in the pathology of the Presbyterian University Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Between 1962 and 1970, he conducted research in experimental pathology at the Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California - interrupted by a stay from 1966 to 1968 in the Department of Immunology at the National Institute for Medical Research in London's Mill Hill. From 1970 to 1984 he was professor of immunopathology Harvard University Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts. After two visiting professorships at Kuwait University School of Medicine ( 1982) and the Royal Postgraduate Medical School in London (1983 ) - Today, Imperial College London - moved Unanue 1985 to the Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. There he became a professor of pathology and at the same time chief physician of Pathology at Barnes Jewish Hospital. Since 2000, he has also a professor at Tulane University in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Work
Unanue was able to gain fundamental insights into the activation of T - cells and its regulation. He was able to show that T cells do not recognize all pathogenic germs, but small fragments ( including macrophages) are presented them together with MHC class II molecules of antigen-presenting cells. Thus, he created the basis for understanding how the immune system recognizes whole pathogens, and the basis for new studies of the pathophysiology of infectious diseases and autoimmune diseases.