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Gerald Edelman
Sign in to saveAlso known as Gerald M. Edelman, Gerald Maurice Edelman
American biologist (1929–2014)
Gerald Edelman was an American biologist who won the Nobel Prize for discovering how the immune system produces the vast diversity of antibodies needed to fight different diseases. His work fundamentally changed our understanding of how our bodies defend themselves against infection and has had lasting importance for immunology and medical research.
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Nobel Prize
- The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine1972
“for their discoveries concerning the chemical structure of antibodies”
Shared · 1/2 portion
Wikidata facts
- Instance of
- human
- Given name
- Gerald
- Gender
- male
- Citizenship
- United States
- Place of birth
- Queens
- Place of death
- La Jolla
- Occupation
- chemist
- Educated at
- The Rockefeller University
- Employer
- The Rockefeller University
- Languages spoken
- English language
- Doctoral advisor
- Frederick Sanger
- Field of work
- immunology
- Image
- Professor Gerald M. Edelman.jpg
Show 9 more facts
- Commons category
- Gerald Edelman
- name in native language
- Gerald Maurice Edelman
- date of death
- 2014-05-17
- date of birth
- 1929-07-01
- cause of death
- prostate cancer
- writing language
- English language
- manner of death
- natural causes
- interested in
- biochemistry
Sources (3)
via Wikidata · CC0
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Encyclopedic overview
Gerald Maurice Edelman (/ˈɛdəlmən/; July 1, 1929 – May 17, 2014) was an American biologist who shared the 1972 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for work with Rodney Robert Porter on the immune system. Edelman's Nobel Prize-winning research concerned discovery of the structure of antibody molecules. In interviews, he has said that the way the components of the immune system evolve over the life of the individual is analogous to the way the components of the brain evolve in a lifetime. There is a continuity in this way between his work on the immune system, for which he won the Nobel Prize, and his later work in neuroscience and in philosophy of mind.
Early life and education
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Gerald Edelman” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.