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Elvin A. Kabat
Summary
Elvin Abraham Kabat (September 1, 1914 – June 16, 2000) was an American biomedical scientist and one of the founding fathers of quantitative immunochemistry. Kabat was awarded the Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize from Columbia University in 1977, National Medal of Science in 1991, and American Association of Immunologists Lifetime Achievement Award in 1995. He is the father of Jon Kabat-Zinn.
Elvin A. Kabat was the president of the American Association of Immunologists from 1965 to 1966, a member of the National Academy of Sciences, and a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He designed the eponymous Kabat numbering scheme for numbering amino acid residues in antibodies based on their variable regions. In 1969, he started collecting and aligning the amino acid sequences of human and mouse Bence Jones proteins and immunoglobulin light chains.
While working under Michael Heidelberger at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons, Kabat studied the carbohydrate chemistry of embryonic-state-specific antigens and markers of white blood cells. Additionally, he discovered the chemical basis of the ABO blood group system.
During World War II, Kabat worked for the National Defense Research Committee on developing a meningitis vaccine, accurate syphilis test, and detectors for neutralizing the plant toxin ricin.
Kabat is best known for discovering the structural and genetic basis for the specificity of antibodies. After showing that antibodies are gamma globulins, he used oligosaccharides of different lengths to interfere with antibodies attempting to bind to the blood plasma substitute dextran, accurately estimating the size and shape of antibody-binding sites before the development of X-ray crystallography.
During his career, Kabat served on advisory panels for the National Research Council, Office of Naval Research, National Science Foundation, National Multiple Sclerosis Society, American Foundation for Allergic Diseases, New York Blood Center, Roche Institute of Molecular Biology, Institute of Cancer Research, and Gorgas Memorial Laboratory, Panama.
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