Robert Royston Amos Coombs FRS

FRCPath The Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) is a professional membership organisation. Its main function is the overseeing of postgraduate training, and its Fellowship Examination (FRCPath) is recognised as the standard assessment of fitness to pr ...

FRCP (9 January 1921 – 25 January 2006) was a British immunologist, co-discoverer of the

Coombs test A Coombs test, also known as antiglobulin test (AGT), is either of two blood tests used in immunohematology. They are the direct and indirect Coombs tests. The direct Coombs test detects antibodies that are stuck to the surface of the red blood ...

(1945) used for detecting antibodies in various clinical scenarios, such as

Rh disease Rh disease (also known as rhesus isoimmunization, Rh (D) disease, and blue baby disease) is a type of hemolytic disease of the fetus and newborn (HDFN). HDFN due to anti-D antibodies is the proper and currently used name for this disease as the ...

and

blood transfusion Blood transfusion is the process of transferring blood products into a person's circulation intravenously. Transfusions are used for various medical conditions to replace lost components of the blood. Early transfusions used whole blood, but mo ...

Biography

He was born in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

and studied

veterinary medicine Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

at the

University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh ( sco, University o Edinburgh, gd, Oilthigh Dhùn Èideann; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in post-nominals) is a public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Granted a royal charter by King James VI in 15 ...

. In 1943 he entered

King's College, Cambridge King's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Formally The King's College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge, the college lies beside the River Cam and faces out onto King's Parade in the centre of the cit ...

, where he commenced work on a doctorate, which he gained in 1947. Before finishing his doctorate, he developed and published methods to detect antibodies with

Arthur Mourant Arthur Ernest Mourant FRS (11 April 1904 – 29 August 1994) was a British chemist, hematologist and geneticist who pioneered research into biological anthropology and its distribution, genetics, clinical and laboratory medicine, and geology. ...

and

Robert Russell Race Robert Russell Race CBE FRS FRCP FRCPath MRCS (28 November 1907 – 15 April 1984) was a British medical doctor and human geneticist. He was Director of the Medical Research Council Blood Group Unit, of the Lister Institute of Prevent ...

in 1945. This is the test now referred to as the

, which, according to the legend, was first devised while Coombs was travelling on the train. Coombs became a professor and researcher at the Department of Pathology of

University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a public collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209 and granted a royal charter by Henry III in 1231, Cambridge is the world's third oldest surviving university and one of its most pr ...

, becoming a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, and a founder of its Division of Immunology. He was appointed the fourth

Quick Professor of Biology The Quick Professorship of Biology is one of the senior professorships in biology at the University of Cambridge. Frederick James Quick (1836–1902), a prosperous coffee merchant and senior partner in the London coffee-firm ''Quick, Reek and Jame ...

in 1966 and continued to work at Cambridge University until 1988. He is reported to have said that " d blood cells were primarily designed by God as tools for the immunologist and only secondarily as carriers of haemoglobin". In November 1956, Coombs founded the

British Society for Immunology The British Society for Immunology, or BSI, is a UK-based organisation of British immunologists but accepts members from all countries. It was founded in November 1956 by John H. Humphrey, Robin Coombs, Bob White, and Avrion Mitchison and is on ...

alongside

John H. Humphrey John Herbert Humphrey Order of the British Empire#Commander, CBE Fellow of the Royal Society, FRS Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians, FRCP (16 December 1915 – 25 December 1987) was a UK, British bacteriologist and immunologist. Education ...

, Bob White, and Avrion Mitchison. He was an honorary member of the British Society for Immunology. He received honorary doctoral degrees by the

University of Guelph , mottoeng = "to learn the reasons of realities" , established = May 8, 1964 ()As constituents: OAC: (1874) Macdonald Institute: (1903) OVC: (1922) , type = Public university , chancellor ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

, and the

and was a

Fellow of the Royal Society Fellowship of the Royal Society (FRS, ForMemRS and HonFRS) is an award granted by the judges of the Royal Society of London to individuals who have made a "substantial contribution to the improvement of natural knowledge, including mathemat ...

of the United Kingdom (1965), a Fellow of the

Royal College of Pathologists The Royal College of Pathologists (RCPath) is a professional membership organisation. Its main function is the overseeing of postgraduate training, and its Fellowship Examination (FRCPath) is recognised as the standard assessment of fitness to pr ...

and an Honorary Fellow of the

Royal College of Physicians The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) is a British professional membership body dedicated to improving the practice of medicine, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by examination. Founded by royal charter from King Henry VIII in 1 ...

. Coombs was married to Anne Blomfield, his first graduate student. They had a son and a daughter.

Works

The

, which he developed and published together with

and

in 1945, has formed the base of a large number of laboratory investigations in the fields of hematology and

immunology Immunology is a branch of medicineImmunology for Medical Students, Roderick Nairn, Matthew Helbert, Mosby, 2007 and biology that covers the medical study of immune systems in humans, animals, plants and sapient species. In such we can see the ...

. Together with Professor Philip George Howthern Gell, he developed a classification of immune mechanisms of tissue injury, now known as the " Gell–Coombs classification", comprising four types of reactions. Together with W.E. Parish and A.F. Wells he put forward an explanation of

sudden infant death syndrome Sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) is the sudden unexplained death of a child of less than one year of age. Diagnosis requires that the death remain unexplained even after a thorough autopsy and detailed death scene investigation. SIDS usuall ...

(SIDS) as an anaphylactic reaction to dairy proteins.

Awards

Coombs was awarded the James Spence Gold Medal, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health in 1967 for developing the

References

External links

The Independent
6 March 2006

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Coombs, Robin 1921 births 2006 deaths Alumni of the University of Edinburgh Alumni of King's College, Cambridge Alumni of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge British immunologists English veterinarians Fellows of the Royal Society Fellows of Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Fellows of the Royal College of Pathologists Recipients of the James Spence Medal Quick Professors of Biology