Former department head and renowned scientist changed the course of immunology research
unexpected
Emil Raphael Unanue, MD, an internationally renowned immunologist at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, died in December. 16, 2022, surrounded by his family in St. Louis after a two-year battle with glioblastoma. He was 88 years old.
Head of the Department of Pathology and Immunology at the School of Medicine from 1985 to 2006, Unanue established the department as a preeminent research powerhouse in immunology, while making major discoveries about the immune system that transformed the field.
“Emil Unanue was an extraordinary scientist whose work went well beyond his own field of immunobiology and influenced many other biological fields including cell biology, microbiology, neurobiology and genetics,” said Richard J. Cote, MD, Professor Edward Mallinckrodt and Chairman of the Department of Pathology and Immunology. We have lost a titan of science whose breadth, depth and understanding of life will be impossible to replace. Although he is gone, his passion for excellence and discovery will continue to motivate us to be the best scientists we can be.
Professor Paul and Ellen Lacy of Pathology and Immunology, Unanue is well known for his work in understanding how the immune system identifies foreign protein fragments, or antigens – a first step in mounting an immune response – and how immune system T cells respond. T cells, key components of the body’s response to infectious diseases and cancer, can be harmful when misdirected against the body’s own tissues and can lead to autoimmune diseases. Unanue’s work has opened the door to finding therapies for autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis and rheumatoid arthritis, which are caused by misdirected immune responses.
In the 1980s, the Unanue research team discovered an essential part of how T cells recognize foreign invaders. Previously, they thought T cells recognized shapes of intact pathogens, but Unanue showed that they identified parts of pathogens while interacting with another group of immune cells called antigen-presenting cells.
These cells capture antigens and cut them into fragments or peptides. Unanue and Paul Allen, PhD, now a professor emeritus of pathology and immunology at the University of Washington, found that antigen-presenting cells bind these peptides to a special group of molecules known as the major antigen complex. histocompatibility.
Through his years of invaluable contributions as a researcher, Unanue has spurred critical discoveries that have brought medicine closer to the ability to enhance the body’s defenses against disease while preventing misdirected immune attacks against normal components. of the organism.
“As busy and deeply successful as he was as a researcher, teaching and mentoring were also very important to him,” said longtime colleague Robert D. Schreiber, PhD, Professor Emeritus Andrew M. and Jane M. Bursky and director of the Bursky Center for Human Immunology and Immunotherapy Programs at the University of Washington. “Through the graduate program in immunology he established at the university, he has helped populate academia and industry with many of the most respected scientists in the field. Its impact cannot be overstated.
Unanue has been recognized on many stages throughout his career. His honors include the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award; the Canada Gairdner International Prize, Canada’s highest scientific honour; the Robert Koch Gold Medal Award in Germany; the Sanofi-Institut Pasteur Prize; and the Gerold and Kayla Grodsky Basic Research Award from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. He also received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Association of Immunologists and was an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, and the National Academy of Medicine.
A native of Havana, Cuba, Unanue graduated from the University of Havana Medical School in 1960, a year after Fidel Castro overthrew the Cuban government. Wanting to be the architect of his own life, he left Cuba for the United States that year, before Castro imposed travel restrictions on residents.
He then completed a pathology internship at Presbyterian University Hospital in Pittsburgh; a pathology fellowship at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, Calif., with renowned immunopathologist Frank Dixon; then a fellowship in immunology at the National Institute for Medical Research in London, where he worked with the famous immunologist Brigitte Askonas.
Unanue returned to Scripps and then was recruited by eventual Nobel laureate Baruj Benacerraf at Harvard Medical School. In 1985, he became head of what was then the Department of Pathology at the Washington University School of Medicine, where he continued to further define the process of antigen presentation, with particular emphasis on diabetes from type I.
A true Renaissance man, Unanue was also known for his legendary love and knowledge of opera and was a longtime supporter of the St. Louis Opera Theater, New York Metropolitan Opera and Santa Fe Opera.
Unanue is survived by his wife of over 58 years, Marianne; his children, Marie Unanue (Chris Georgen), Rachel Rose (Scott) and David Unanue (Laura); his brother, Alberto Unanue; and six grandchildren.
A celebration of his life will take place in 2023.
Memorial contributions may be made to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation or the Saint Louis Opera Theater.
0 Comments