Michael Sela

Michael Sela (1924-) is the W. Garfield Weston Professor of Immunology at the Weizmann Institute of Science.^[1]

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Birth and academic career

Michael Sela was born in Poland in 1924. Today, he is an Institute Professor in the Weizmann Institute's Immunology Department.

Research

Michael Sela is known for his research in immunology, particularly for research on synthetic antigens, molecules that trigger the immune system to attack. These work on Sela have led to the discovery of the genetic control of the immune response, as well as to the design of vaccines based on synthetic molecules.

He was among the first introduced the use of linear and branched synthetic polypeptides as antigens, and this brought about a better understanding of immunological phenomena.

For several decades, Sela have been interested in the possibility of fighting the autoimmune disease, experimental allergic encephalomyelitis (EAE) with synthetic analogs of the molecules in the myelin sheath of the brain which are capable of provoking the disease.

In 1998 he was awarded the Wolf Prize in Medicine along with Ruth Arnon for "their major discoveries in the field of immunology".^[2]

Awards and honours

Michael Sela has received several awards. Following are the major awards received by Sela.

• The Israel Prize in Natural Sciences (1959)
• The Rothschild Prize (1968)
• Germany's Emil von Behring Prize (1973)
• Canada's Gairdner Foundation International Award (1980)
• France's Institut de la Vie Prize (1984)
• Germany's Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit Award (1986)
• France's Officier de l'Ordre de la Legion d'Honneur (1987)
• UNESCO's Albert Einstein Golden Medal (1995)
• Interbrew-Baillet Latour Health Prize of Belgium (1997)
• The Wolf Prize in Medicine (1998)

References