The Discovery of the Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC): The H-2 in Mice and the HLA in Man

In this chapter I describe how the major histocompatibility system, the H-2 system, was discovered in mice by Peter Gorer in 1935 in London. This discovery was possible thanks to the development of “inbred and H-2 recombinant strain of mice” in the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor (Maine, USA). George Snell was the leading scientist in that lab. Years later, in the middle of the 1950s, Jean Dausset in Paris and Jon van Rood in Leiden discovered the homologous system in humans: the HLA. The complexity of such genetic system made impossible for a single lab to analyse and understand the structure of genes and molecules involved. I describe also in this chapter the enormous scientific cooperation that made possible such analysis, namely, “The HLA International Workshops”. These workshops are a unique example of exchange reagents and results at large scale providing with a new scientific nomenclature accepted by different participants. The major histocompatibility system has provided enormous new knowledge in basic genetics and immunology, as well as in medicine with a variety of clinical applications that changed the diagnostics and therapies of a large number of diseases.