JS
Science & Medicine

Jack Strominger

Who

Jack Strominger · Science & Medicine

What

Biochemist who determined the structure of the human MHC molecules central to immune recognition.

When

1925, New York City, USA

Where

United States (Yale · Wisconsin · Harvard University)

Biography

Jack Strominger is recognized among Jewish contributors to Science & Medicine — Biochemist who determined the structure of the human MHC molecules central to immune recognition.

How & why

Born in New York City into a Jewish family and trained in medicine at Yale, Strominger first explained how penicillin kills bacteria by blocking cell-wall synthesis. He then devoted decades to the major histocompatibility complex (MHC), and with Don Wiley isolated, crystallized and determined the three-dimensional structures of human MHC class I and II molecules in 1987. Because MHC proteins present fragments of pathogens to the immune system, his structures revealed the molecular basis of immune recognition; he received the 1995 Lasker Award.

Sources & external links

Verify and go deeper with these external references.

Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology

Contributions & Sources

Biochemist who determined the structure of the human MHC molecules central to immune recognition.

1925

Source: Jinfo.org — Jews in Biology