George Davis Snell

George Davis Snell ( born December 19, 1903 in Bradford, Massachusetts, USA, † June 6, 1996 in Bar Harbor, Maine, United States) was an American biologist who primarily focused on the immunology and transplantation medicine. In 1980 he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Baruj Benacerraf and together with Jean Dausset for the discovery of genetically determined cellular surface structures that immunological reactions are controlled. In 1976 he was awarded a Gairdner Foundation International Award, and in 1978 with the William B. Coley Award.

Life

George Davis Snell was born in 1903 in Bradford. He studied from 1922 at Dartmouth College and later at Harvard University biology. Here he received his doctorate in 1930 and he received his first teaching post in the following year at the University of Texas in Austin. In 1934 he went to the at that time leading laboratory for research into the genetics of mammals, the Rsocoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratories, Bar Harbor. Where he worked from 1946 to 1956 as a professor and from 1957 until his retirement in 1969 as head of the laboratories.

Work

George Davis Snell and his two excellent colleagues with him dealt decisively with the immunological compatibility of tissues after transplantation. Benacerraf, Dausset and Snell have demonstrated in their experiments that these immune factors are genetically fixed. They are largely responsible for ensuring that it is experimentally possible to study these factors, as they were able to show that even on the white blood cells, leukocytes are the same factors as in other body cells. This allowed an immune system factors are developed, which similar to the blood group systems and works with the defense reactions can be carried out by testing the patient's blood already.

Snell identified especially the genes that were responsible for the acceptance and rejection of exogenous tissue while Benacerraf and Dausset were involved in the elucidation of the biochemical key molecules in this histocompatibility complex.