Michael Neuberger
{{Short description|British biochemist and immunologist}}
{{EngvarB|date=July 2017}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=July 2017}}
{{Infobox scientist
| name = Michael Neuberger
| honorific_suffix = FRS FMedSci
| birth_name = Michael Samuel Neuberger
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| birth_date = {{Birth date|df=yes|1953|11|2}}{{cite web|url=http://www.debretts.com/people/biographies/browse/n/5243/Michael%20Samuel+NEUBERGER.aspx |title=Prof Michael Neuberger, FRS Authorised Biography |publisher=Debretts.com |access-date=2 December 2013}}
| birth_place = London, United Kingdom
| death_date = {{Death date and age|df=yes|2013|10|26|1953|11|2}}
| death_place = Cambridge, United Kingdom
| fields =
| workplaces = Laboratory of Molecular Biology
| education = {{Plainlist|
| thesis_url = http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.466977
|thesis_title = Transducing phages for analysis of gene duplications
| thesis_year = 1978
| doctoral_advisor = Brian S. Hartley
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| spouse = Gillian Anne Pyman
| children = 4
}}
Michael Samuel Neuberger FRS FMedSci (2 November 1953 – 26 October 2013) was a British biochemist and immunologist.{{Cite journal | last1 = Cattaneo | first1 = A. | last2 = Sitia | first2 = R. | doi = 10.1038/emboj.2013.251 | title = Remembering Michael S Neuberger (1953-2013) | journal = The EMBO Journal | volume = 32 | issue = 24 | pages = 3112–3113 | year = 2013 | pmc = 3981150 }}{{cite web|url=http://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/michael-neuberger-1953-2013/ |title=Michael_Neuberger Obituary|date=28 October 2013|publisher= Medical Research Council|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151208092258/http://www2.mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk/michael-neuberger-1953-2013/|archive-date=8 December 2015}}{{cite journal|last1=Rajewsky|first1=K.|title=Michael S. Neuberger 1953–2013|journal=Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences|pmc=3939883|volume=111|issue=8|year=2014|pages=2862–2863|issn=0027-8424|doi=10.1073/pnas.1401334111|pmid=24532658|bibcode=2014PNAS..111.2862R|doi-access=free}}{{cite journal|last1=Gearhart|first1=Patricia J.|last2=Kelsoe|first2=Garnett|title=A tribute to Michael S. Neuberger|journal=Journal of Clinical Investigation|volume=124|issue=1|year=2014|pages=3–5|issn=0021-9738|doi=10.1172/JCI74366|pmc=3871264|pmid=24382382}} {{open access}}
Biography
Born in Kensington,{{Cite ODNB|id=107564|title=Neuberger, Michael Samuel}} Michael Samuel Neuberger was the fourth of five children of Albert Neuberger and Lilian Ida (née Dreyfus). He was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge, from where he graduated with a first class honours degree in Natural Sciences in 1974. Neuberger then joined Brian Hartley at Imperial College to study for his PhD. During this time, and at Hartley’s suggestion, he visited the South African biologist Sydney Brenner at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology (LMB) in Cambridge. Their discussions drew Neuberger back to the LMB in 1980 and he remained there for the rest of his career, eventually becoming its deputy director. César Milstein at the LMB recommended that Neuberger spent some time studying immunology with Klaus Rajewsky at the University of Cologne; he spent 18 months there, after his PhD.
Neuberger “was probably most widely known for delineating the role of DNA deamination in immunity through his pioneering work that explained how cytosine deamination drives the somatic hypermutation and class-switch recombination of antibody-encoding genes. Following the identification of activation-induced cytidine deaminase (AID) by Honjo and Durandy as the protein essential for both of those processes, Michael produced a series of seminal papers during 2002 that laid bare the mechanism that had perplexed immunologists for 30 years.”{{Cite journal|last=Rada|first= Cristina|title= Michael S. Neuberger 1953–2013|journal=Nature Immunology|volume=15|page=2|date=1 January 2014|doi= 10.1038/ni.2788|s2cid= 28370559|doi-access=free}}
=Family=
Michael Neuberger married Gillian Anne (Gill) Pyman, an Australian doctor, on 6 September 1991. They had four children: Saskia, Lydia, Thomas and Benjamin. He died of myeloma, a cancer of antibody-producing cells, at Addenbrooke's Hospital, Cambridge, on 26 October 2013. "At his request, he was buried in a Jewish consecrated grave in the grounds of the Baptist oratory, next to his family weekend home in Suffolk."
Some key papers
- {{cite journal | last=Neuberger | first=M.S. | title=Expression and regulation of immunoglobulin heavy chain gene transfected into lymphoid cells. | journal=The EMBO Journal | publisher=Wiley | volume=2 | issue=8 | year=1983 | issn=0261-4189 | doi=10.1002/j.1460-2075.1983.tb01594.x | pages=1373–1378| pmid=10872333 | pmc=555285 | s2cid=36917815 }}
- {{cite journal | last1=Neuberger | first1=Michael S. | last2=Williams | first2=Gareth T. | last3=Fox | first3=Robert O. | title=Recombinant antibodies possessing novel effector functions | journal=Nature | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=312 | issue=5995 | year=1984 | issn=0028-0836 | doi=10.1038/312604a0 | pages=604–608| pmid=6095112 | bibcode=1984Natur.312..604N | s2cid=4342212 }}
- {{cite journal | last1=Di Noia | first1=Javier | last2=Neuberger | first2=Michael S. | title=Altering the pathway of immunoglobulin hypermutation by inhibiting uracil-DNA glycosylase | journal=Nature | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=419 | issue=6902 | date=31 July 2002 | issn=0028-0836 | doi=10.1038/nature00981 | pages=43–48| pmid=12214226 | bibcode=2002Natur.419...43D | s2cid=4390343 }}
- {{cite journal | last1=Harris | first1=Reuben S. | last2=Sale | first2=Julian E. | last3=Petersen-Mahrt | first3=Svend K. | last4=Neuberger | first4=Michael S. | title=AID Is Essential for Immunoglobulin V Gene Conversion in a Cultured B Cell Line | journal=Current Biology | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=12 | issue=5 | year=2002 | issn=0960-9822 | doi=10.1016/s0960-9822(02)00717-0 | pages=435–438| pmid=11882297 | s2cid=14276978 | doi-access=free }}
- {{cite journal | last1=Petersen-Mahrt | first1=Svend K. | last2=Harris | first2=Reuben S. | last3=Neuberger | first3=Michael S. | title=AID mutates E. coli suggesting a DNA deamination mechanism for antibody diversification | journal=Nature | publisher=Springer Science and Business Media LLC | volume=418 | issue=6893 | year=2002 | issn=0028-0836 | doi=10.1038/nature00862 | pages=99–104| pmid=12097915 | bibcode=2002Natur.418...99P | s2cid=4388160 }}
- {{cite journal | last1=Rada | first1=Cristina | last2=Williams | first2=Gareth T | last3=Nilsen | first3=Hilde | last4=Barnes | first4=Deborah E | last5=Lindahl | first5=Tomas | last6=Neuberger | first6=Michael S | title=Immunoglobulin Isotype Switching Is Inhibited and Somatic Hypermutation Perturbed in UNG-Deficient Mice | journal=Current Biology | publisher=Elsevier BV | volume=12 | issue=20 | year=2002 | issn=0960-9822 | doi=10.1016/s0960-9822(02)01215-0 | pages=1748–1755| pmid=12401169 | s2cid=11340281 | doi-access=free }}
Awards and honours
He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society (FRS) in 1993,{{cite web |title=Fellowship of the Royal Society 1660–2015 |url=https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RVVZY00MZNrK2YCTTzVrbTFH2t3RxoAZah128gQR-NM/pubhtml |publisher=Royal Society |location=London |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151015185820/https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1RVVZY00MZNrK2YCTTzVrbTFH2t3RxoAZah128gQR-NM/pubhtml |archive-date=15 October 2015 |url-status=dead }}{{Cite journal |last=Rada |first=Cristina |last2=Sale |first2=Julian E. |date=2025 |title=Michael Samuel Neuberger. 2 November 1953—26 October 2013 |url=https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsbm.2024.0031 |journal=Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society |volume=78}} “a source of particular pride for his father and a very rare concurrence of father and son as Fellows.” and was awarded their GlaxoSmithKline Prize in 2003. He also received the Novartis medal in 2002 and delivered the Novartis medal lecture, entitled "Antibodies: a Paradigm for the Evolution of Molecular Recognition" on 9 April 2002 at Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh. In 2013 Neuberger was appointed a Foreign Associate of the National Academy of Sciences.
References
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{{FRS 1993}}
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Category:People educated at Westminster School, London
Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge
Category:Alumni of Imperial College London
Category:Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:Members of the European Molecular Biology Organization
Category:Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Category:Jewish British scientists