Michael Neuberger facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Michael Neuberger
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| Born |
Michael Samuel Neuberger
2 November 1953 London, United Kingdom
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| Died | 26 October 2013 (aged 59) Cambridge, United Kingdom
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| Alma mater | |
| Spouse(s) | Gillian Anne Pyman |
| Children | 4 |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | Laboratory of Molecular Biology |
| Thesis | Transducing phages for analysis of gene duplications (1978) |
| Doctoral advisor | Brian S. Hartley |
Michael Samuel Neuberger (born November 2, 1953 – died October 26, 2013) was a very important British scientist. He was a biochemist and an immunologist. This means he studied the chemistry of living things and how our bodies fight off sickness. He was especially known for his work on how our immune system creates different kinds of antibodies.
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About Michael Neuberger's Life
Michael Neuberger was born in London in 1953. He was one of five children in his family. He went to Westminster School and then studied Natural Sciences at Cambridge University. He graduated with top honors in 1974.
After that, he earned his PhD at Imperial College London. During this time, he visited the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge. He liked it so much that he returned to the LMB in 1980. He stayed there for the rest of his career, eventually becoming its deputy director. He also spent time in Germany studying immunology, which is the science of how our bodies protect us from diseases.
His Big Discovery
Michael Neuberger was famous for figuring out how our immune system makes so many different types of antibodies. Antibodies are special proteins that help our bodies fight off germs and sickness. He discovered how a process called "DNA deamination" helps change the genes that make antibodies. This explained a mystery that scientists had wondered about for 30 years!
His Family Life
Michael Neuberger married Gillian Anne Pyman in 1991. She was a doctor from Australia. They had four children together: Saskia, Lydia, Thomas, and Benjamin.
Michael Neuberger passed away in 2013 from a type of cancer that affects the cells that make antibodies. He was buried in a special Jewish grave near his family's home in Suffolk.
Awards and Special Recognitions
Michael Neuberger received many important awards for his scientific work.
- In 1993, he became a Fellow of the Royal Society. This is a very high honor for scientists in the United Kingdom. His father was also a Fellow, which was very rare and special for them.
- He won the GlaxoSmithKline Prize in 2003.
- In 2002, he received the Novartis medal. He also gave a special lecture called "Antibodies: a Paradigm for the Evolution of Molecular Recognition."
- In 2013, he was named a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences in the United States.
