Irun R. Cohen

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Irun R. Cohen (born September 1, 1937 in Chicago ) is an Israeli-American medic and immunologist .

Life

Cohen first studied philosophy at Northwestern University (Bachelor of the College of Liberal Arts 1959) and then medicine at Northwestern Medical School (MD 1963). He completed his specialist training in pediatrics in Jerusalem (internship from 1963 to 1964 at Hadassah University Hospital) and at Johns Hopkins University Hospital (residency from 1966 to 1968). In between he was a seconded officer from 1964 to 1966 with the US Public Health Service at the Center for Disease Control in Atlanta , where he researched infectious diseases. After completing his specialist training, he was at the Weizmann Institute from 1968 to 1971 with a grant from the Arthritis Foundation . He stayed at the Weizmann Institute, where he became Associate Professor in 1974 and Professor of Immunology in 1987 (most recently Mauersberger Professor ) and from 2007 Professor Emeritus. From 1993 to 2001 he was director of the Robert Koch-Minerva Center for research in autoimmune diseases . From 1997 to 2001 he was director of the Center for the Study of Emerging Diseases in Jerusalem and from 2004 to 2006 director of the National Center for Biotechnology in the Negev at Ben-Gurion University.

In 1989 he received the Robert Koch Prize .

plant

He developed cloned T cells as functional tests for autoimmune diseases and an antigen microarray chip for tests of the immune system, which is inspired by his idea of ​​the immune system's self-image, which he calls the immunological homunculus . He developed this theory in 1989 as an alternative to the clone selection theory , based on his knowledge, for example gained from studying autoimmune diseases , that mechanisms for recognizing one's own antigens are present in the immune system and are similar to those with which foreign antigens are recognized. The immune system therefore has a picture of its own body and not just a picture of the exogenous world, but it reacts differently to the body's own cells.

He developed a T- cell vaccination against autoimmune diseases (such as rheumatoid arthritis , lupus erythematosus , multiple sclerosis ), which is in clinical trials. Instead of inactivated antigens against foreign substances, as in the usual vaccination, inactivated own T cells are injected, which attack the own body in autoimmune diseases. He is director of the European Collaboration of T Cell Vaccination and director of the Israeli National Institute for T Cell Vaccination.

Cohen is also testing a vaccination with peptides for diabetes 1 based on parts of the heat shock protein Hsp60 after showing that this stops the self-destruction of beta cells in the islets of Langerhans . Cohen also sees this as a test of his homunculus theory, since the vaccination is based on modified endogenous substances.

He studies and works closely with scientists in the field of complex systems and is on the council of the Israeli National Center for Complex Systems. In particular, he deals with complex systems in biology and their simulation. He is co-inventor of an interactive visual language for the simulation of complex dynamic systems (reactive animation).

He also deals with the relationship between the Talmud and science.

Fonts

  • Editor with Ariel Miller: Autoimmune Disease Models. A Guidebook , Academic Press 1994
  • Editor with H. Atlan Theories of Immune Networks , Springer 1989
  • Editor Perspectives in Autoimmunity , CRC Press 1988
  • Editor with Lee A. Segel Design Principles for the Immune System and other Distributed Autonomous Systems , Oxford University Press 2001 (Santa Fe Institute Studies in the Sciences of the Complexity)
  • Editor with René de Vries, Jon van Rood The Role of Micro-organisms in Non-infectious Diseases , Springer 1990
  • Tending Adam's Garden: Evolving the Cognitive Immune Self , Academic Press 1999
  • with Eugene Rosenberg Microbial Biology , Saunders 1983
  • Editor with Jingwu Zhang T cell vaccination , Gazelle Pub. 2008
  • Cohen The self, the world and autoimmunity , Scientific American 1988

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cohen Natural Id-Anti-Id Networks and the Immunological Homunculus , in Atlan, Cohen (Ed.) Theories of Immune Networks, Springer Series in Synergetics, Volume 46, 1989. Cohen, Douglas B. Young Autoimmunity, microbial immunity and the immunological homunculus , Immunology Today, Vol. 12, 1991, No. 4, p. 105
  2. ↑ The clone selection theory, on the other hand, assumes the segregation of cells that recognize their own antigens
  3. ^ Cohen, "T-cell vaccination for autoimmune disease: a panorama". Vaccine, Vol. 20, 2001, pp. 706-10
  4. ^ Page by Cohen on his vaccination against diabetes 1
  5. ^ Cohen Regen and Resurrection: Talmud and Science in Dialogue with the World , Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht 2005 (German translation by Eduard Lohse of Rain and Resurrection. How the Talmud and Science Read the World ), Landes Bioscience 2010
personal data
SURNAME Cohen, Irun R.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Israeli-American medical doctor and immunologist
DATE OF BIRTH September 1, 1937
PLACE OF BIRTH Chicago