AP: Jamaica Plain Nobel Laureate Baruj Benacerraf Dies at 90

One of the most notable scientists to have called Jamaica Plain home died Tuesday, his family told the Associated Press.

Venezuelan native Dr. Baruj Benacerraf received the 1980 Nobel Prize in Medicine for his work in immunogenetics (the study of the relationship between the immune system and genetics).

Benacerraf made numerous contributions to the study on the immune system and of its relationship to genetics, and has received various distinctions and awards for his research.

In a Benacerraf expressed youthful enthusiasm and related how he moved to Jamaica Plain for its closeness to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, where he became president in 1980. He lived with his family in . He also enjoyed walking around the Pond, and said in January regreted not being able to do it that often any more.

He has been Director of the Laboratory of Immunology of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease in Bethesda, Maryland, Chair of Pathology at Harvard Medical School, President of the American Association of Immunologists, President of the American Society for Experimental Biology and Medicine, and President of the International Union of Immunological Societies.

Benacerraf was born in Caracas, Venezuela, in 1920 of Spanish-Jewish ancestry. His father, a self-made businessman, was a textile merchant and importer, born in Spanish Morocco. Dr. Benacerraf’s mother was born and raised in French Algeria and brought up in the French culture. When he was five years old, his family moved to Paris where they resided until 1939, and received primary and secondary education in French. The family returned to Venezuela because of the second World War, and later on moved to the United States where young Baruj pursued higher education. He registered at Columbia University in the School of General Studies, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree in 1942, having also completed the pre-medical requisites for admission to Medical School.

Benacerraf's wife, Annette Dreyfus, died in June, according to the AP. He is survived by brother Paul Benacerraf, a Princeton University philosophy professor; daughter Beryl Benacerraf, a Harvard Medical School professor; and two grandchildren. Funeral services haven't been announced, the AP reported.