Emil_R._Unanue

Emil R.
Unanue
Emil Raphael Unanue (September 13, 1934 –
December 16, 2022[1]) was a Cuban-American Emil Raphael Unanue
immunologist and Paul & Ellen Lacy Professor Born September 13, 1934
Emeritus at Washington University School of Republic of Cuba
Medicine. He is a member of the National Academy of Died December 16, 2022 (aged 88)
Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Citizenship Cuba (birth), U.S.
and the Institute of Medicine. He previously served as
Alma mater University of Havana
chair of the National Academy of Sciences Section of
Microbiology and Immunology. Known for Research in immunology
Scientific career
Fields Scientist; Immunologist;
Area of expertise Educator; [Author]
Institutions Harvard University; Scripps
Unanue initiated a field of study known as antigen
Research Institute; Washington
presentation; it is critical to the development of
University in St. Louis
vaccines and underlies an understanding of microbial
immunity and autoimmune diseases. Doctoral Herbert W. "Skip" Virgin
students
In the late 1970s, it was recognized that T lymphocytes
could not recognize antigen directly and instead required an interaction with another specialized cell
known as the Antigen-presenting cell. Nobel Prize winners, Rolf Zinkernagel and Peter C. Doherty
showed that this recognition also required the antigen-presenting cell to be from the same genetic
background as the T-cell. That observation, called MHC restriction, led to a conundrum; namely, that the
ability of a T cell to recognize foreign antigen also required that it recognize "self"
With Paul M. Allen, the Robert L. Kroc Professor at Washington University School of Medicine, Unanue
discovered that peptides from foreign antigens were bound to a group of molecules known as the major
histocompatibility complex (MHC). This peptide-MHC complex was shown to be recognized by T cells.
Although the latter hypothesis was initially greeted with intense skepticism, a large body of work,
generated over the last two decades, has confirmed its validity.
Education and early career

Emil Unanue received his doctorate from the University of Havana (Cuba) in 1960. He then immigrated
to the United States and studied briefly at the University of Pittsburgh. Following that experience,
Unanue was a postdoctoral research fellow at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation, now The
Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California. With his mentor, Dr. Frank J. Dixon, he made a series
of contributions to the field of renal pathophysiology by examining the immune basis of
glomerulonephritis. Unanue then joined the group headed by Dr. Brigitte Askonas at the National Institute
for Medical Research at Mill Hill in London.
Together, Unanue & Askonas made the seminal observation that macrophages did not completely
catabolize antigens, foreshadowing development of the field of antigen processing and presentation. In
1970, Unanue was given an appointment in the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School,
where he quickly rose through the academic ranks to become the Mallinckrodt Professor of
Immunopathology in 1974.
While at Harvard University, he and his colleagues made observations in the areas of immunoglobulin
capping on B cells and host defenses to bacteria such as Listeria monocytogenes. That work culminated
in the conclusion that MHC molecules mediate the display of processed peptides to T cells.
Work at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri

From 1985 to 2006, Unanue was the chairman of pathology and immunology and Mallinckrodt Professor
at Washington University School of Medicine. He was preceded in that position by Dr. Paul Eston Lacy,
and succeeded by Dr. Herbert "Skip" Virgin. Unanue's research focused on the molecular mechanisms of
antigen processing, the immunological basis of autoimmune diabetes, and immune responses to
intracellular bacteria.
Illness and death

Unanue developed a malignant brain tumor, glioblastoma multiforme, in 2020.[2] He died of that disease
in 2022.
Awards
1989 Cancer Research Institute William B. Coley Award
1995 Albert Lasker Award for Basic Medical Research
2000 Gairdner Foundation International Award
2005 Robert Koch Gold Medal
2014 American Association of Immunologists Lifetime Achievement Award[3]
References
1. Elizabethe Holland Durando (2022-12-24). "Obituary: Emil Raphael Unanue, renowned
immunologist, 88" (https://medicine.wustl.edu/news/obituary-emil-raphael-unanue-renowned
-immunologist-88/). Retrieved 2022-12-30.
2. "Obituary: Emil Raphael Unanue, renowned immunologist, 88" (https://medicine.wustl.edu/n
ews/obituary-emil-raphael-unanue-renowned-immunologist-88/). 24 December 2022.
3. "Past Recipients" (https://www.aai.org/Awards/Career-Awards/AAI-Lifetime-Achievement-Aw
ard/Past-Recipients.aspx). The American Association of Immunologists. Retrieved
19 September 2018.
External links
Lasker Award Recipients' Page (http://www.laskerfoundation.org/awards/1995_b_descriptio
n.htm)
Faculty Webpage at Washington University in St. Louis School of Medicine (http://beckerexh
ibits.wustl.edu/mig/bios/unanue.html)
ISI Highly Cited Researchers (http://hcr3.isiknowledge.com/author.cgi?&link1=Browse&link2
=Results&id=176)
"From antigen processing to peptide-MHC binding", Nature Immunology - 7, 1277 - 1279
(2006) (http://www.nature.com/ni/journal/v7/n12/abs/ni1206-1277.html)
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Emil R.

Education and early career

Work at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri

Illness and death

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Emil_R._Unanue&oldid=1235562734"

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