Albert Coons
| Albert Hewett Coons | |
|---|---|
Albert H. Coons
|
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| Born | June 28, 1912 Gloversville, New York |
| Died | September 30, 1978 (age 66) Brookline, Massachusetts |
| Residence | Brookline, Massachusetts |
| Citizenship | U.S. |
| Nationality | U.S. |
| Fields | Physician; Internist; Educator; Author; Immunologist; Pathologist |
| Institutions | Harvard University |
| Alma mater | Williams College (BS); Harvard Medical School (M.D.) |
| Known for | Research in immunology |
| Influences | Hans Zinsser |
| Notable awards | Lasker Award (1959) Gairdner Foundation International Award (1962) |
Albert Hewett Coons (June 28, 1912 – September 30, 1978) was an American physician, pathologist, and immunologist. He was the first person to conceptualize and develop immunofluorescent techniques for labeling antibodies in the early 1940s.
Coons was born in Gloversville, New York, on June 28, 1912, the son of Albert Selmser and Marion (née Hewett) Coons. His father was the president of a glove-manufacturing company, and his grandfather, Eugene Coons, was a physician. He was educated in Gloversville public schools, graduated with a B.S. from Williams College (Williamstown, Massachusetts) in 1933, and received his M.D. degree from Harvard Medical School in 1937. Thereafter, Albert pursued residency training in internal medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. During the final years of his house-officership, Coons joined the Thorndike Memorial Laboratory and was given a fellowship position in bacteriology and immunology. In that capacity, he came under the professional influence of Hans Zinsser, a pioneering and dynamic immunologist and microbiologist.
Coons took a vacation trip to Berlin, Germany, in 1939, where he had a scientific epiphany. Having discussed with colleagues the immunological nature of the "Aschoff nodule" (an intracardiac, endomyocardial collection of myocytes and inflammatory cells) in rheumatic fever, Albert mulled over the nature of the antigens and antibodies that were involved in its formation. He later wrote: "In strange cities, visitors have many hours alone. It struck me that this theory [of immunological hypersensitivity as the etiology of the Aschoff nodule] had never been tested and indeed could not be tested without the demonstration of antibody or antigen, preferably both, in the local lesions. I considered that it might be easier to find the antigen than the antibody... The notion of labeling an antibody molecule with a visible label was perfectly obvious in such a context." When Coons shared these thoughts with German scientific colleagues, they were highly skeptical that such a task could be accomplished. Knowledge of antibody structure was rudimentary, a method for attaching a fluorescent molecule to antibodies did not exist, and even the very synthesis of such chemical tags was in its scientific infancy. Nonetheless, undeterred, Albert returned to Boston to tackle the project.
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