Emil Unanue

Emil R. Unanue was a distinguished professor of Medicine at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, holding the Paul and Ellen Lacy Professorship in Pathology and Immunology. Born in Havana, Cuba, in 1934, he received his MD degree from the University of Havana School of Medicine in 1960. Following his emigration to the United States, he completed pathology residency training at Presbyterian University Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He then pursued postdoctoral research at the Scripps Clinic and Research Foundation in La Jolla, California, under Frank J. Dixon, where he pioneered animal models of immune complex glomerulonephritis. In 1966, he conducted research on macrophages at the National Institute for Medical Research in London with Brigitte Askonas.

Unanue joined the Department of Pathology at Harvard Medical School in 1970, recruited by Baruj Benacerraf, and advanced to Mallinckrodt Professor of Immunopathology by 1974. His early work elucidated mechanisms of antigen processing and presentation, demonstrating that macrophages degrade protein antigens into peptides presented on MHC molecules to T cells. In 1985, he was appointed chair of the Department of Pathology at Washington University School of Medicine, a role he held until 2006, during which he renamed it the Department of Pathology and Immunology and elevated it to a premier research institution. He founded the Graduate Program in Immunology there. His research later focused on the molecular mechanisms of antigen presentation relevant to type 1 diabetes autoimmunity and immune responses to intracellular bacteria such as Listeria monocytogenes. Unanue mentored generations of scientists who advanced to leadership positions in academia and industry.

He received numerous distinguished awards, including election to the National Academy of Sciences in 1987, American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1989, and National Academy of Medicine in 1995; the Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award in 1995; Gairdner Foundation International Award in 2000; Robert Koch Gold Medal in 2005; American Association of Immunologists Lifetime Achievement Award in 2014; and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Gerold and Kayla Grodsky Basic Research Scientist Award in 2018. Unanue also chaired the National Academy of Sciences Section of Microbiology and Immunology.