George Davis Snell facts for kids

George Davis Snell was an American scientist who studied genetics and immunology. He was born on December 19, 1903, and passed away on June 6, 1996.

Snell is famous for his important discoveries about how our bodies accept or reject transplanted tissues and organs. His work helped doctors make organ transplants much safer and more successful.

Amazing Discoveries

George Snell shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with two other scientists, Baruj Benacerraf and Jean Dausset. They won the prize for finding special structures on the surface of our cells. These structures control how our body's defense system, called the immune system, reacts to new things, like transplanted organs.

Snell's specific discovery was about "genetic factors." These are like tiny instructions in our DNA that decide if a body will accept or reject a new tissue. He found these factors by studying mice. He called them "H antigens."

His research on mice led to the discovery of something similar in humans, called HLA. This is a very important group of genes known as the major histocompatibility complex. Understanding these genes was a huge step forward for successful organ transplants.

His Life Story

George Snell was born in Bradford, Massachusetts, and was the youngest of three children. His father worked for the YMCA and even invented something to help wind coils for motorboat engines!

George went to school in Brookline, Massachusetts. He loved math and science, especially genetics. He studied at Dartmouth College and earned his first degree in 1926.

Becoming a Scientist

After Dartmouth, Snell went to Harvard University for his advanced studies. He worked with William E. Castle, who was one of the first American biologists to study how traits are passed down in mammals. Snell earned his PhD from Harvard in 1930. His research focused on how genes are linked together in mice.

After getting his PhD, Snell taught at Brown University for a year. Then, he spent two years at the University of Texas. There, he worked with H. J. Muller, another scientist who later won a Nobel Prize. Muller studied how X-rays affect genes. Snell learned a lot about the genetic effects of X-rays on mice during this time.

Snell realized that research was his true passion. He decided that studying mouse genetics was what he wanted to do.

Working at Jackson Laboratory

In 1935, George Snell joined the staff of Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine. This lab was (and still is) a world-famous place for mouse genetics research. He stayed there for the rest of his long career.

In Bar Harbor, he met and married Rhoda Carson. They had three sons: Thomas, Roy, and Peter. When he wasn't working, Snell enjoyed skiing and playing tennis.

Awards and Honors

George Snell received many awards for his important work. Here are some of them:

• 1952: Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
• 1967: Gregor Mendel Medal from the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences
• 1970: Elected to the National Academy of Sciences
• 1978: William B. Coley Award for immunology research
• 1978: Wolf Prize in Medicine
• 1980: Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
• 1981: Became a founding member of the World Cultural Council

George Snell passed away in Bar Harbor on June 6, 1996. His wife had passed away two years earlier. His work continues to be very important for understanding our immune system and for successful organ transplants.

See also

In Spanish: George D. Snell para niños

• C.C. Little
• Peter Alfred Gorer
• Leroy Stevens