Nobel Prize laureate for his pioneering studies on histocompatibility complexes.
Baruj Benacerraf was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1920. Benacerraf moved to the U.S. at the age of 20 to pursue a college education. He got his B.S. at Columbia University School of General Studies in 1942. Benacerraf obtained his M.D. from the medical college of Virginia. During his medical studies, Benacerraf was drafted to the U.S. military and served for 3 years. After his military service, Benacerraf began his career of research at Columbia University. He would also research in Paris, at New York University, and at the National Institute of Health before establishing himself as an immunologist professor at Harvard University. He primarily researched immune system hypersensitivity, allergies, and autoimmune disorders. In1980, he was awarded the Nobel Prize for discovering over 30 genes which control the bodies immune response. He discovered this by observing the differences in antigen responses from various animals with similar heredity. Benacerraf was also awarded the National Medal of Science, the Rous-Whipple Award, the Gold-Headed Cane Award.