Innovative Russian Molecular Biologist To Head Argonne's Genome Project; Husband-And-Wife Research Team Share Nobel 'Predictor' Prize From Columbia

Two immunologists, John W. Kappler and Philippa Marrack, have been awarded Columbia University's 1994 Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize for their ground-breaking work in identifying the mechanisms by which T cells, one of the immune system's central components, are able to differentiate between foreign antigens and proteins of the self. Kappler and Marrack both are Howard Hughes Medical Institute investigators at the National Jewish Center for Immunology and Respiratory Medicine in Denver and members

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The prize, which included a $22,000 award shared by the two scientists, was presented by Columbia's president, George Rupp, on January 19 in New York. Established in 1967 to honor research in biology or biochemistry, the Horwitz Prize is seen as a strong predictor for the Nobel Prize--29 of 53 recipients later received the Nobel.

In the early 1980s, Kappler and Marrack were one of three research teams to first describe the T-cell receptor and how it recognizes antigen in the body. Then, in 1987, they discovered how T cells that target the body's own tissues are identified and destroyed (J.W. Kappler, et al., Cell, 49:273-80, 1987). Without such a mechanism--or when this process malfunctions-- destructive autoimmune diseases of various kinds can result. Through November 1994, the Cell paper had been cited 1,210 times by fellow scientists in other publications.

"The cells of the immune system randomly generate receptors that ...

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