The chapter covers two mid-20th-century American medical discoveries. In 1948, George Snell and Baruj Benacerraf, working at the Jackson Laboratory and Harvard Medical School, identified the major histocompatibility complex, the set of cell-surface proteins that let the immune system distinguish self from nonself and that explained why transplanted tissue was rejected; they won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Medicine. That same year, Edward Kendall and Philip Hench discovered cortisone, an adrenal cortex hormone then called compound E, and found that administering it to a rheumatoid arthritis patient at the Mayo Clinic eliminated her symptoms, earning them the 1950 Nobel Prize in Medicine.
- 01
The hosts note the contrast in recognition speed: the MHC discovery took over 30 years to receive its Nobel Prize, while cortisone's took only two.
232 words · auto-generated from the episode video
1:14:54that like you know all of our cells have proteins on the outside that are designed to recognize self versus nonself. Okay, this is why before 1948 we didn't have any idea why tissues were rejected when you transferred from one organism to another. George Snell and Baruge Benarf they discovered the major hystocompatibility complex which is that protein that you see on the outside there and its role in immune regulation while they were at the Jackson Laboratory and the Harvard Medical School. They earned the 1980 Nobel Prize in medicine. >> Waiting 20, 30, 40 years to get the
1:15:35Nobel is still crazy to me. 1948 discovery and application of cortisone. Yes, cortisone is an >> hormone that is administered by the adrenal cortex. Edward Kendall and Philip Hench discovered this thing. They called it compound E at the time. And when they administered it to a someone who had severe rheumatoid arthritis at the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, that person no longer had rheumatoid arthritis. And they were like, "Uh, that's crazy." They won the 1950 Nobel Prize in Medicine. Notice 1948 the discovery. 1950. This is 2 years later
1:16:18they won the Nobel Prize cuz everyone was like, "Whoa." >> Well, yeah. This this this this we're going to we're going to accelerate this. >> Yeah. Yeah, we don't need more proof >> on this one. >> Yeah.