|
Zanvil Alexander Cohn (November 16, 1926 – June 28, 1993) was a cell biologist and immunologist who upon his death was described by the New York Times as being “in the forefront of current studies of the body's defenses against infection.”, professor at Rockefeller University. There Cohn had been the Henry G. Kunkel Professor for seven years. Cohn was senior physician at the university as well as vice president for medical affairs. Until two years before his death, he also served as principal investigator of the Irvington Institute for Medical Research. Although Cohn never won the Nobel Prize, Ralph M. Steinman, with whom he ran a laboratory at Rockefeller University for many years, was named in 2011, eighteen years after Cohn's death, to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for the work on dendritic cells done in their lab. By way of explaining Cohn's importance, one commentator has noted that macrophages “are scavenger cells of the immune system that engulf and digest invaders, including bacteria and other pathogens, as well as toxins and dead cells. They are central to so-called innate immunity—immune defenses that can act without previous exposure to a pathogen. They are central to inflammation, the responses of the body to infection and injury, and also when inflammation becomes chronic during diseases like atherosclerosis and tuberculosis. When Zanvil Cohn (1926-1993) began studying macrophages in the early 1960s, little was known about them. Immunologists had for decades focused on the chemistry of the second major component of the immune system—the acquired immune response, in which the body produces antibodies in response to exposure to an antigen. In pioneering studies, both at the laboratory bench and with human subjects, Cohn helped launch the new field of cellular immunology.”〔(【引用サイトリンク】 work =The Rockefeller University )〕 “Dr. Cohn's experiments,” reported the ''Times'' in his obituary, “threw light on the functions of T-cells, made in the bone marrow, and macrophages, large cells that can surround and digest foreign substances like protozoa and bacteria. He applied these insights to patient-oriented investigations of leprosy, tuberculosis and AIDS. He also established that macrophages can release a multitude of biologically active products. Since the mid-1980's he used hormone-like products of the immune system to increase patients' resistance to microbial infections. This work took him to parts of Asia and Latin America where leprosy and tuberculosis are endemic.”〔 In a 2009 biographical memoir, Carol L. Moberg and Steinman wrote that “Zanvil Cohn may be most remembered as the founder of modern macrophage biology and for leading the shift in mid-twentieth-century research from bacterial cells to host-parasite relationships.”〔(【引用サイトリンク】 work =National Academy of Sciences )〕 ==Early life and pre-war education== Cohn was born in New York City, the son of David and Esther (Schwartz) Cohn; he had one sibling, a brother, Donald, who was three years younger. Zanvil, a Yiddish version of Samuel,〔(【引用サイトリンク】 work =Google Books )〕 was a family name. His father had come to New York from Düsseldorf at age 19 in 1905 and after working for some years in his Uncle Josef’s butcher shop in Manhattan became an owner of Kansas Packing, a meat packing firm in New York. Cohn's mother, born in the United States of parents from Budapest, was raised in Huntington, Long Island, and worked as a buyer for Oppenheim, Collins & Co., a Manhattan clothing store, later becoming a partner in an apparel firm. As a child, Cohn spoke both German and English. He attended public schools in Queens, then Columbia Grammar School in Manhattan, where he played baseball and football, was president of the student government, and played piano at graduation. After graduating from Columbia Grammar at 16, Cohn attended Bates College in Maine, where he majored in biology. He was the first member of his family to attend college.〔 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Zanvil A. Cohn」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|