Henry G. Kunkel

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Henry George Kunkel (born September 9, 1916 in Brooklyn ; † December 15, 1983 ) was an American immunologist who made important discoveries in basic immunological research and who contributed significantly to the expansion of clinical immunology.

Life

Kunkel's father, Louis O. Kunkel, was a professor of plant pathology at Rockefeller University (and Kunkel himself later cultivated botanical hobbies such as growing irises). Kunkel grew up in Yonkers, New York and Princeton . He studied at Princeton University (Bachelor 1938) and Johns Hopkins University Medical School (MD 1942).

After two years at Bellevue Hospital in New York City, he was a doctor in the US Navy in 1944 and participated in the landing in Italy. There he became interested in hepatitis diseases and continued this as part of the US Navy hepatitis research program after the war at the Rockefeller Institute and Hospital (Rockefeller University) in New York City (with Charles L. Hoagland, after his early death he soon became head of the laboratory). In 1947 he became an assistant member there, an associate member in 1949 and a full member in 1952, and he stayed at Rockefeller University for the rest of his career.

In 1973 he also became an adjunct professor at Cornell University Medical School. In 1950/51 he was a visiting scientist in Uppsala with Arne Tiselius .

He discovered that proteins associated with myeloma could serve as models for studying immunoglobulins ( antibodies ), which was initially controversial (also doubted by Rodney Porter , for example ). He used it to study the chain structure and antigen specificity of antibodies in his laboratory. He was also instrumental in research into the complement system and B cells , which he studied using B cell leukemia.

His research was important in ensuring that diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis and lupus erythematosus were classified as autoimmune diseases, two diseases that his laboratory particularly researched. He made particular use of the antinuclear antibody (ANA) technique . Kunkel himself discovered new disease syndromes early in his career.

He developed immunological test and laboratory methods (such as the measurement of serum proteins with turbidimetric flocculation with zinc sulfate or the Pevikon block electrophoresis ).

Kunkel taught numerous immunologists, including Gerald Edelman and Hans J. Müller-Eberhard .

From 1960 he was editor of the Journal of Experimental Medicine and he was co-editor of Advances in Immunology .

Awards

In 1974/1975 he served as President of the American Association of Immunologists . He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences and an honorary doctorate from Harvard and Uppsala Universities.

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personal data
SURNAME Kunkel, Henry G.
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Kunkel, Henry George
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American immunologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 9, 1916
PLACE OF BIRTH Brooklyn
DATE OF DEATH December 15, 1983