Honorary Professor Alain E. Bussard

Immunology Letters 131 (2010) 1–2

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Obituary

Honorary Professor Alain E. Bussard (25th May 1917–15th March 2010)

Professor Alain E. Bussard breathed his last on March 15, 2010 on the French Riviera, south of France, at the age of 93 years. Alain Bussard was among the pioneers who led the development of immunology discipline at a time when it needed to find a niche of its own, distinct but relevant to microbiology and medicine. Today, the discipline of Immunology has its own identity and is taught as such at the universities. Alain Bussard’s contributions towards this remarkable achievement, locally at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, at national level in France and at international level, in Europe, were truly exemplary. Alain Bussard was born on May 25, 1917 in Paris, France, where he grew up as a child. His mother, Odette Maurel, alias Marion Gilbert, pianist, novelist, translator and journalist was highly committed to the feminist cause and his father, Leon Bussard, was an agronomist. Alain Bussard began his scientific career in 1939 when he was recruited as a technician by Paul Langevin, director of ESPCI (Ecole Superieure de Physique et Chimie Industrielles de la ville de Paris). Then came the World War IInd in which Alain Bussard played a very active role in resistance movement. In 1943, he took a position with the CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique) when he was working in the laboratory of Endocrinology of Robert Courrier at « College de France » in Paris. Two years later, in 1945, he came to Pasteur Institute in the laboratory of Pierre Grabar, a pioneer of immunochemistry, and worked on antiHormone antibodies essentially to develop a pregnancy immuno test. One of his first research publications dates back to 1947. It is during his stint in the Grabar laboratory, he met his lifetime 0165-2478/$ – see front matter doi:10.1016/j.imlet.2010.05.004

friend Jacques Oudin, a brilliant immunochemist, known for the seminal work on allotypes and idiotypes of antibodies (Ab). Alain Bussard defended his doctoral thesis in 1950 and was encouraged by Jacques Monod (French Nobel prize with Franc¸ois Jacob and André Lwof in 1965) for post-doctoral studies in USA with a grant from the Rockefeller Foundation. Though, Alain worked at the university of Madison, Wisconsin, he visited many different laboratories (California Institute of Technology, Harvard University, etc.) and interacted with many stalwarts in the field of immunology like Elvin Kabat and Joshua Lederberg with whom he was in life long contact. He was very impressed by the quality and dynamism of research while in USA. Upon return to France in 1953, he took up the position of assistant professor in the laboratory of Jacques Monod to work on anti-enzyme antibodies. At that time the knowledge base of immunology was rapidly expanding and, in France, the Pasteur Institute was the only place to do fundamental and quality research in that field. Alain Bussard worked with Pierre Grabar and Jacques Oudin, the leaders in the characterization of Ab specificities principally using immunoprecipitation in gel and electrophoresis. Alain Bussard, combining both the procedures, developed the novel technique, electrosyneresis, also called counter-current immunoelectrophoresis, which was published in 1959. From the immunochemical and molecular studies of serum Abs to the cellular studies of Ab secreting cells, there was only a small gap that Alain Bussard filled quickly. His first article dealing with Ab secreting B cells in rabbits was published in 1960. The subsequent paper was published in the journal “Nature” and cellular immunology not only got the attention of international research community, but also led to greater recognition at the Pasteur Institute. This seminal work on Ab secreting cells naturally led to the creation of a laboratory of Cellular Immunology in 1963 with Alain Bussard as its Director. Numerous scientific personalities of immunology visited the laboratory that included Joseph Ingraham, Alistair Cuningham, Sir Gustave Nossal, and Cesar Milstein. These interactions contributed to precise single cell studies that ultimately led to advances in the understanding of the mechanisms of Ab production. These pioneering studies led to a new era of what was named by some scientists as “the Bussard phenomenon”, genuine demonstration of the famous notion of serendipity (which, interestingly, has no translation in French) that, Alain Bussard thought, has to play a crucial role in scientific findings. He discovered that B-cells from the peritoneal cavity of a non-immune mouse are highly enriched in a sub-population that secrete autoantibodies. These cells (now called B1a cells), constitute a saga per se because they are distinguishable from the majority of conventional B-cells (called B2 cells).

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Obituary / Immunology Letters 131 (2010) 1–2

The cellular characteristics at morphological, ontogenical, functional, phenotypic and anatomical distribution levels raised new questions that ultimately resulted in delineation of the differentiation pathways of B-cells. From Alain Bussard’s first publication on mouse peritoneal B cells in 1966 to the last one in 1986, his approach was highly methodical and stringent that involved the development of required new methodologies. The laboratory was one of the first in Pasteur Institute to use hybridoma technology to generate monoclonal Abs (published in 1978). When applied to peritoneal B-cells, it allowed the sequencing of Abs that hybridomas produced leading to identification of novel VH genetic elements. Peritoneal B cells continue to provide new insights relevant to contemporary immunology where researchers have recently described them to be the regulatory B cells. Alain Bussard’s personality, organized, curious, sharp, engaged and open minded to any technical or conceptual situation is also evidenced by his desire to promote immunology at the national and international levels. Alain Bussard was an active witness to the creation of French Society of Immunology (SFI) by Pierre Grabar in 1966. He became the 3rd president of the SFI. Through the aegis of SFI, he contributed towards the creation of the International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS) in 1969 and was the first president of the European Federation of Immunological Societies (EFIS) that he founded in 1975. He was involved in various scientific committees at the Pasteur Institute as well as CNRS and INSERM (Institut National de la Santé Et de la Recherche Médicale). He held several international positions that included WHO expert in Immunology, member of EMBO, editor of the journal “Immunochemistry” (now “Molecular Immunology”) and founder of “Immunology Letters”, one of the official journals of EFIS. He also created a databank of immunoclones (hybridomas, T cell clones, etc.) and participated to the creation of a research and development platform specially devoted to the production of hybridomas at the Pasteur Institute. Being a noble spirit, philosophically and scientifically, with literary taste from his mother and scientific talent acquired from his father, Alain Bussard remained glued to the advances in science. His last contributions were epistemologic, the Darwinian and Lamar-

ckian aspects of immunology, and the impact of the prion story on the transmission of the molecular information (published in 2005). After his retirement from the Pasteur Institute in 1985, Alain Bussard lived with his wife Jacqueline Pages-Bussard in the south of France, in the French Riviera, and actively engaged in literary, cultural and scientific pursuits until the end. For us, having the privilege of being his students, Alain Bussard was truly an exceptional scientist of his kind who created an original school of thinking in immunology that has much influenced our practice of science in advancing knowledge. “I owe it to Alain Bussard for having shaped my scientific thinking, rational questioning of published scientific beliefs and properly designed controlled experimentation. While writing doctoral dissertation, I recall his unforgettable words of wisdom, “While writing a thesis or a manuscript, just have a pencil and paper on the table” Azad Kaushik

“After his retirement, whenever he came to Paris we always used to have lunch in a small Indian restaurant close to the Pasteur Institute. We discussed a lot during these precious lunches and the more I saw of him, the more I realized the richness and generosity of Alain Bussard. I emerged with a feeling of having spent high quality time.” Pascal Poncet

He thoughtfully engaged in advancing knowledge and always showed genuine concern for the better in all situations and for all the people. The French and European immunology is heavily indebted to Alain Bussard whose vision led to where immunology is founded today. Thank you very much Professor Bussard for who you were and what you did for ‘science’ and the community at large. The legacy of your school of thinking is rare but it lives through your students into the 21st century for all the time to come. Azad Kaushik University of Guelph, Guelph, Ontario, Canada Pascal Poncet Institut Pasteur, Paris, France