Jan Klein (immunologist)

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Jan Klein (* 1936 in Štemplovec , Czechoslovakia ) is a Czech-American immunologist .

Jan Klein 2006

Klein studied botany at Charles University in Prague , where he graduated magna cum laude in 1958 . From 1958 to 1961 he was a teacher at a grammar school in Prague and received his doctorate in 1965 at the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences . As a post-doctoral student he went to Stanford University , where he became an assistant professor in 1969. In 1973 he became Associate Professor at the University of Michigan and in 1975 Professor at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center . From 1977 until his retirement in 2004 he was director at the Max Planck Institute for Biology in Tübingen and head of immunogenetics at the institute. He is currently a professor at Pennsylvania State University . He was also a professor at the University of Miami .

Klein is known for his contributions to the study of the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), a major pillar of the adaptive immune system, and its associated genes. He introduced the differentiation of genes into two classes I and II. While class I genes had been known as genes for blood groups since 1936, Klein and colleagues (Vera Hauptfeld and his wife Dagmar Klein) discovered that class II genes were responsible for the amount of antibodies produced in response to foreign antigens . Together they form a cluster on chromosome 6, for which Klein came up with the name MHC.

He advocates a broad conception of immunology as the biological science of distinguishing between self and non-self .

With the help of the MHC complex he also investigated changes in the genetic make-up in evolution and drafted his TSP hypothesis (Trans-Species Polymorphism). With the help of the genetics of the immune system, he followed the emergence of species, e.g. B. the evolution of the Galapagos finches and fish in Lake Victoria in East Africa.

Klein published a biography of Gregor Mendel .

In 2003 he received the Gregor Mendel Medal in Brno. He is an honorary member of the American Association of Immunologists , the French Society for Immunology, the Scandinavian Society for Immunology and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science . He is an honorary professor at the Charles University in Prague.

Klein has been a US citizen since 1977.

He is the founding editor of Immunogenetics .

Fonts

  • Biology of the Mouse Histocompatibility-2 Complex. Principles of Immunogenetics Applied to a Single System , Springer-Verlag, 1975
  • The Science of Self-Non-Self Discrimination , Wiley 1982
  • Natural history of major histocompatibility complex ; Wiley 1986
  • Immunology , Oxford, Blackwell 1990, 2nd edition with Vaclav Horejsi 1997, German Immunology , VCH, Weinheim 1991
  • with Naoyuki Takahata Where do we come from? , Springer Verlag 2002
  • with Norman Klein: Solitude of a Humble Genius - Gregor Johann Mendel, Volume 1 (Formative Years), Springer 2013

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a review of the German edition by Stefan HE Kaufmann can be found in Biologie in our Time , Volume 21, 1991, No. 6, pp. 329-330. Klein is known for large-volume, but excitingly written immunology books that are now being translated for the first time.
personal data
SURNAME Klein, Jan
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Czech-American immunologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Štemplovec , Czechoslovakia