George D. Snell
Facts
Photo from the Nobel Foundation archive.
George D. Snell
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1980
Born: 19 December 1903, Bradford, MA, USA
Died: 6 June 1996, Bar Harbor, ME, USA
Affiliation at the time of the award: Jackson Laboratory, Bar Harbor, ME, USA
Prize motivation: “for their discoveries concerning genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions”
Prize share: 1/3
Work
Our immune system rejects damaged or abnormal cells, allowing our bodies to function properly. During transplants, this can also happen to the foreign cells. Through studies of mice with a very similar genetic make-up, George Snell showed that these rejections are caused by molecular complexes on the surface of the cells. In 1951 he also showed that rejection is governed by a group of genes on a special place on a certain chromosome. Among other things, the results proved significant for transplants.
Nobel Prizes and laureates
Six prizes were awarded for achievements that have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind. The 12 laureates' work and discoveries range from proteins' structures and machine learning to fighting for a world free of nuclear weapons.
See them all presented here.
