Jean Dausset

French immunologist

Born: October 19, 1916 · Died: June 6, 2009

Famous Persons

Who was Jean Dausset?

Jean-Baptiste-Gabriel-Joachim Dausset (19 October 1916 – 6 June 2009) was a French immunologist born in Toulouse, France. Jean-Baptiste-Gabriel-Joachim Dausset was born in Toulouse, France. He was the youngest of four children of Henri Dausset and Elisabeth Dausset (born Renard). His father was from the Pyrénées, and was a doctor by profession, and his mother was a housewife from Lorraine. Following the end of World War I the Dausset family moved to Biarritz where Jean spent most of his childhood. He married Rose Mayoral in 1963, with whom he had two children, Henri and Irène. Jean Dausset died in Mallorca, Spain, at the age of 92.

Historical significance

Dausset received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1980 along with Baruj Benacerraf and George Davis Snell for their discovery and characterisation of the genes making the major histocompatibility complex. Using the money from his Nobel Prize and a grant from the French Television, Dausset founded the Human Polymorphism Study Center (CEPH) in 1984, which was later renamed the Foundation Jean Dausset-CEPH in his honour.

Sources and further reading

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Wikipedia source

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MLA

“Jean Dausset.” thisDay, thisday.info/people/jean-dausset/. Accessed 19 Oct. 2026.

APA

Jean Dausset. (n.d.). thisDay. Retrieved October 19, 2026, from https://thisday.info/people/jean-dausset/

Chicago

“Jean Dausset.” thisDay. Accessed October 19, 2026. https://thisday.info/people/jean-dausset/.

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