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George Davis Snell | |
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| Born | December 19, 1903 |
| Died | June 6, 1996(1996-06-06) (aged 92) Bar Harbor, Maine, U.S |
| Education | Dartmouth College (BS) Harvard University (DSc) |
| Known for | Discovery ofH2 |
| Spouse | Rhoda Carson |
| Children | 3 |
| Awards | 1980Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1978Wolf Prize in Medicine |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | genetics immunologist |
| Institutions | Jackson Laboratory Brown University Washington University School of Medicine |
| Doctoral advisor | William E. Castle |
George Davis SnellNAS (December 19, 1903 – June 6, 1996) was an American mousegeneticist and basictransplantimmunologist.
George Snell shared the 1980Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine withBaruj Benacerraf andJean Dausset for their discoveries concerning "genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions". Snell specifically "discovered the genetic factors that determine the possibilities of transplanting tissue from one individual to another. It was Snell who introduced the concept of Hantigens."[1] Snell's work in mice led to the discovery ofHLA, the major histocompatibility complex, in humans (and all vertebrates) that is analogous to the H-2 complex in mice. Recognition of these key genes was prerequisite to successful tissue andorgan transplantation.
George Snell was born inBradford, Massachusetts, the youngest of three children. His father (who was born inMinnesota) worked as a secretary for the localYMCA; he invented a device for winding induction coils for motorboat engines. Snell was educated in theBrookline, Massachusetts schools and then enrolled atDartmouth College inHanover, New Hampshire where he continued his passion for mathematics and science, focusing on genetics. He received hisbachelor's degree from Dartmouth in 1926.
On the recommendation of John Gerould, his genetics professor at Dartmouth, Snell did graduate work atHarvard University withWilliam E. Castle, the first American biologist to look forMendelian inheritance in mammals. Snell earned hisPhD from Harvard in 1930. His doctoral thesis was ongenetic linkage in mice.
Upon receiving the PhD fromHarvard, George Snell was employed as a teacher atBrown University, from 1930 to 1931.
Snell then spent two years as a postdoctoral fellow at theUniversity of Texas withH.J. Muller, who pioneered radiation genetics (and was also to win aNobel Prize). Snell studied the genetic effects of x-rays on mice with Muller.
This experience "served to convince me that research was my real love," Snell wrote in his autobiography.[2]"If it were to be research, mouse genetics was the clear choice and theJackson Laboratory, founded in 1929 byDr. Clarence Cook Little, one of Castle's earlier students, almost the inevitable selection as a place to work." The Jackson Laboratory was (and still is) the world's mecca for mouse genetics.
From 1933 to 1934, Snell was a teacher atWashington University in St. Louis.
After brief stints as teachers, in 1935 Snell joined the staff of The Jackson Laboratory inBar Harbor onMount Desert Island on the coast ofMaine and he remained there for the entire balance of his long career. In Bar Harbor, he met and married Rhoda Carson. Together they had three children. In his leisure time, Snell enjoyed skiing, a passion he developed during his years at Dartmouth, as well as tennis.
Snell received the Cancer Research InstituteWilliam B. Coley Award in 1978 for distinguished research in immunology. In 1988, he authored a substantial book,Search for a Rational Ethic, on the nature of ethics and the rules by which we live. It includes anevolution-based ethic founded on biological realities that he believed to be applicable to all human beings.
Snell died in Bar Harbor on June 6, 1996. His wife died in 1994.
including the Nobel LectureStudies in Histocompatibility| International | |
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