Jean Dausset

James Dausset married Rose Mayoral in 1963 and the couple had two children named Henri and Irène.He died on 6 June 2009, in Majorca, Spain, at the age of 92.

In his honour the CEPH centre was renamed as the ‘Fondation Jean Dausset-CEPH’.

Jean-Baptiste-Gabriel-Joachim Dausset was born on 19 October 1916 at Toulouse in France. His father, Henri Dausset, was a physician who served as a captain in the army and his mother’s name was Elizabeth Brullard Dausset.

He spent the early days of his childhood at Biarritz, France. When he was 11 years old, he along with his family sifted to Paris. He pursued his secondary school education from the Lycée Michelet and earned his baccalaureate in mathematics.

As per his father’s interest, he enrolled at the University of Paris to study medicine. He was preparing himself for an internship entrance exam when the World War II broke out. During the war, he was sent to serve the French army and posted in North Italy for a year.

In 1940, he returned to Paris and successfully passed his medical internship entrance examination.

After receiving the title of medical intern, he left for North Africa to join the fighting forces. As part of his duties, he performed blood transfusions. This was his initial exposure to immunohaematology.

He returned to Paris in 1944 and was assigned the task of collecting blood samples in Paris area in collaboration with the regional Blood Transfusion Centre at Hospital Saint- Antoine.

During this period he initiated his first research project with Professor Marcel Bessis, who had developed the technique of exchange transfusion in adults and new born babies.

In 1946, he joined the National Blood Transfusion Center as Director of laboratories. He worked at the Center till 1963. While working here he focused on the immunohaematology methods for red blood cells and attempted to utilize these techniques for white blood cells and blood platelets as well.

He conducted studies to confirm the existence of certain antibody types in the body. He conducted transfusions among volunteer patients and donors to understand immune responses.

Jean Dausset was an immunologist who focused on the research regarding genetics of immunological reactions. Among his research projects he studied hepatitis, colon- rectal cancer cells, cloning disease related genes and Crohn’s disease.