Institute of Immunology and Infection Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK, and Visiting Researcher of the Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, UK
This is a Science Portrait of Prof. Dr. Jim (James Frederick) Kaufman, Institute of Immunology and Infection Research, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, UK, and Visiting Researcher of the Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, UK. He will give a presentation at Fujita Health University, by Zoom, on Friday, October 29.
Prof. Kaufman is one of the world leaders in the science of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) molecules, and his specialty is their evolution. MHC molecules are critical to the adaptive immune system by presenting peptides to T lymphocytes. MHC molecules are fascinating because they show more variation between individuals than any other human molecules. Until he retired there last year, Prof. Kaufman was professor at Cambridge University, UK. He is particularly famous for his well-supported models that in evolution MHC class II came before MHC class I, and that MHC allelic polymorphism importantly concerns differences in expression levels and narrow versus broad repertoires of presented peptides (“specialists” versus “generalists”). He has a beautiful style of writing and has written many articles in top-tier review journals. This sense for explaining will serve us well when he will tell us about “The MHC and disease: a new understanding of how it works,” in which he will discuss MHC molecules and their evolution in general (he knows that we are not an audience of specialists) and his generalists/specialists model in particular.
Prof. Kaufman studied Chemistry at the University of Washington, graduating magna cum laude. After this, he did his Ph.D. studies at Harvard University in the group of Jack L. Strominger, winner of, e.g., the Lasker Award and the Japan Prize. In that group, the young Jim was important in the first biochemical, genetic, and theoretical analyses of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I and II molecules (e.g., Kaufman and Strominger, Nature 1982; Kaufman et al. Cell 1984; the 1984 paper was the first in which he proposed that—in evolution—MHC class II came before MHC class I). It was also Jim who suggested his friend, Pamela Björkman who did her Ph.D. studies in the same group, to be the first to elucidate the structure of MHC molecules. This she did for HLA-A2 with help of the Don Wiley group (Bjorkman et al., Nature 1987); for a sequence of events, in which Jim is mentioned, see memories by Jack Strominger. Based on this elucidation of the HLA-A2 structure, even very recently, Björkman and Strominger were mentioned as potential candidates for a Nobel Prize.
After Harvard, Jim became an independent member scientist at the Basel Institute for Immunology. This was a famous institute (1971-2000) where the company Hoffmann-La Roche permanently allowed around 50, mostly young, scientists to do basic immunology research in freedom. Several of those scientists would eventually receive a Nobel Prize for their work (partially) done or optimized in Basel, including Niels K. Jerne and Georges J.F. Köhler (together with César Milstein of Cambridge University) in 1984 for theories on the adaptive immune system and the establishing of a method for the production of monoclonal antibodies, respectively, and Susumu Tonegawa (who left the institute in the year Jim arrived) in 1987 for his discovery of the genetic principle for generation of antibody diversity. Jim used his Basel period (1981-1995) as a start to establish himself as a leader in the field of chicken MHC and the evolution of MHC, something which he is still to date. Reasons for Jim to dedicate much of his MHC research to chicken are that their genomic organization of (classical) MHC genes is relatively simple compared to most mammals (Kaufman et al., Nature 1999) and that their allelic MHC variation is linked with pronounced differences in disease resistance (Kaufman, Philos Trans R Soc Lond B Biol Sci 2000; Halabi et al., Plos Biology 2021). In humans, MHC molecules show the highest polymorphism (allelic variation between individuals) of all molecules, but the reasons for this polymorphism are (arguably) still not well understood (e.g., Yamaguchi and Dijkstra, Cells 2019; Radwan et al., Trends in Genetics 2020). Working in a simpler model like chicken may increase the chance of finally becoming sure about the reasons of MHC polymorphism, which is a holy grail for many MHC researchers.
After Basel, in 1995, Jim became first Deputy Head and then Head (2002) of the Division of Immunology and Pathogenesis, Institute for Animal Health, Compton and Pirbright, UK. In this function, he had an important task in trying to help the poultry industry. This was followed, in 2007, by becoming a Professor of Comparative Immunogenetics at the University of Cambridge, UK, where he retired in 2020 to become Professor of Immunology at the University of Edinburgh, UK. In all these years in the UK, Prof. Kaufman did a lot of the necessary groundwork for chicken MHC, such as the genetic analysis of allelic polymorphisms and haplotypes, structural elucidation of chicken MHC molecules, sequencing of the peptides that these molecules bind, and analyzing disease associations. Despite being relatively straightforward, Prof. Kaufman’s dedication to precision and sharp eye for the scientifically new, allowed this research to be published in top journals (e.g., Koch et al., Immunity 2007). Gradually, all this serious groundwork accumulated into an entirely new concept of MHC polymorphism, distinguishing between “specialists” and “generalists” that have a narrow or broad repertoire of presented peptides (Kaufman, Trends in Immunology 2018). Quite recently, this concept has been supported by findings in humans.
I have been studying MHC evolution from 1997, mostly from the perspective of fish. Throughout all those years, Prof. Kaufman’s work has been a beacon of quality and research integrity. It was also always easy to tell when one of my papers had been reviewed by Prof. Kaufman, because of the beautiful English, the depth and detail of the comments, and the supportive nature (although he can be brusque about mistakes). I will never forget that when I was applying for a job, he took the time and effort to write a long and careful letter on my behalf. So, it is with very great honor and pleasure that I can introduce Prof. Kaufman as a speaker at Fujita Health University.
What Prof. Kaufman likes about Science
I asked Prof. Kaufman to also write some personal words for this blog. For that, he wrote:
What I like about science: “Every day is a fun adventure, as I learn new things from our research and from my colleagues, and suddenly realise connections that had never occurred to me.”
CURRICULUM VITAE
BIRTH: October 6, 1952, in New York City
EDUCATION:
1970-1974 University of Washington, BSc (magna cum laude) in Chemistry
Thesis with Professor Martin Gouterman:
Synthesis and Spectroscopic Characterization of Uranyl Porphyrins.
1974-1983 Harvard University, Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology:
Thesis with Professor Jack Strominger:
Proteolytic Dissection of MHC Class II Antigen Structure
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE:
1981-1995 Independent Member Scientist, Basel Institute for Immunology,
Basel, Switzerland
1995-2007 Deputy Head and then (2002) Head, Division of Immunology and
Pathogenesis, Institute for Animal Health, Compton and Pirbright, UK
2007-2019 Professor of Comparative Immunogenetics, Division of Immunology,
Department of Pathology, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
2016-2017 Head, Division of Immunology, Department of Pathology, University of
Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
2020-present Professor of Immunology, Institute for Immunology and Infection
Research, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK
KEY HONOURS AND AWARDS:
1972 NORCUS Fellow, University of Washington
1990 Elected member of European Network of Immunology Institutes
2012 Elected Fellow of Royal Society of Biology
2014 Elected member of the Medical Research Club (London)
2018 Elected member of the European Molecular Biology Organisation
(EMBO)
OTHERS:
Regarding memberships, committee tasks, teaching history, reviewing tasks, editorships, and rewarded grants, Prof. Kaufman has an impressive list matching his other achievements. Of these, I just like to summarize that he has been reviewer for >50 journals including Nature, Nature Communications, Nature Immunology, PNAS, and Science.
PUBLICATIONS
Prof. Kaufman has 172 publications, including in top-journals such as Nature (4x), Cell (2x), Nature Immunology (1x), Nucleic Acids Research (1x), Journal of Experimental Medicine (3x), EMBO Journal (1x), and PNAS (10x). Besides these papers, Prof. Kaufman regularly published in the top-tier review journals in the field of immunology. The below list is a combination of the papers that he selected in relation to his seminar, and papers that I selected for his Science Portrait. For a more complete list of his publications see his ORCID page. At the beginning of his career, Prof. Kaufman used the initials J.F., which for unity were changed in this list to only J.
9. Kaufman J (2015) Co-evolution with chicken class I genes. Immunol Rev 267(1): 56-71.
12. Kaufman J (2015) Co-evolution with chicken class I genes. Immunol Rev 267: 56-71.
13. Kaufman J (2013) The Avian MHC (Chapter 8, pp 149-167). In: Avian Immunology, second edition; KA Schat, P Kaiser, B Kaspers, editors. Elsevier, Ltd.
22. Kaufman J (2002) The origins of the adaptive immune system: whatever next? Nat Immunol 3(12):1124-5.
36. Kaufman J, Auffray C, Korman AJ, Shackelford DA, Strominger J (1984) The class II molecules of the human and murine major histocompatibility complex. Cell. 1984 Jan;36(1):1-13.
44. Burakoff SJ, Engelhard VH, Kaufman J, Strominger JL (1980) Induction of secondary cytotoxic T lymphocytes by liposomes containing HLA-DR antigens. Nature 283(5746): 495-7.
