John Kappler
John Wayne Kappler is an American biochemist and immunologist.
Life
Kappler earned a bachelor's degree in chemistry in 1965 at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania in 1970 and a Ph.D. in Biochemistry at Gordon H. Sato at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. As a postdoctoral fellow he worked with Richard Dutton at the University of California, San Diego in La Jolla, California.
A first Assistant Professor of Oncology ( assistant professor in 1973, associate professor in 1978 ) received Kappler at the University of Rochester in Rochester, New York. In 1979 he moved to the National Jewish Health, a leading institute of allergy and immunological research, based in Denver, Colorado. In 1980 he became associate professor of microbiology and immunology at the University of Colorado at Denver in 1984 full professor. Since 1986, Kappler research in addition to the Howard Hughes Medical Institute in Denver. In 1998 he also took over a professorship of pharmacology at the University of Colorado. Since 2001, his teaching and research activities in immunology for the University of Colorado and the National Jewish Medical and Research Center are summarized in a joint professorship.
Work
Kappler has contributed, together with his wife, the biochemist and immunologist Philippa Marrack, important insights into the molecular basis of the recognition of antigens by T cells. They were able to demonstrate, among other things, that the T- cell receptor is comprised of two subunits, and recognizes both MHC molecules and antigens. They also described the T- cell receptor and the timeframe in which takes place its gene rearrangement, and were able to identify the elimination of T- cell clones as a central mechanism of self- tolerance. These findings are fundamental for the understanding of autoimmune diseases, allergies, transplant rejection and vaccinations.