Deborah Doniach ( Abileah; 6 April 1912 – 1 January 2004) was a British
clinical immunologist and pioneer in the field of
autoimmune disease
An autoimmune disease is a condition that results from an anomalous response of the adaptive immune system, wherein it mistakenly targets and attacks healthy, functioning parts of the body as if they were foreign organisms. It is estimated tha ...
s.
Early and personal life
Deborah Abileah was born in
Geneva
Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...
, Switzerland, on 6 April 1912 to Russian parents. Her father, Arieh Abileah (born Leon Niswitzki), of Jewish descent, was a concert pianist and music teacher; her mother, Fée Héllès, of Russian-German descent (born Fea Geller), ran a novel dance school in Paris.
The family moved frequently during Deborah's childhood, living at various times in Paris, Vienna and Italy.
Due to the frequent moves and her parents' bohemian lifestyle, she did not start any formal education until the age of nine, when she and her sisters were staying at an Italian convent while her mother was recovering from
tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB), also known colloquially as the "white death", or historically as consumption, is a contagious disease usually caused by ''Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can al ...
at a sanitorium and her father was accompanying the violinist
Josef Szigeti on a tour of the United States. The family later settled in
Tel Aviv
Tel Aviv-Yafo ( or , ; ), sometimes rendered as Tel Aviv-Jaffa, and usually referred to as just Tel Aviv, is the most populous city in the Gush Dan metropolitan area of Israel. Located on the Israeli Mediterranean coastline and with a popula ...
, Mandatory Palestine, where her father taught piano at the Tel Aviv Conservatory.
They left Palestine for Paris, where Deborah was educated at the .
She began studying medicine at the
Sorbonne but interrupted her studies in 1933 to relocate to London after marrying
Israel "Sonny" Doniach, a British
pathologist
Pathology is the study of disease. The word ''pathology'' also refers to the study of disease in general, incorporating a wide range of biology research fields and medical practices. However, when used in the context of modern medical treatme ...
whom she had first met in Palestine in 1925.
Following the births of her two children, she learned English and resumed her medical studies at the Royal Free Medical School, graduating in 1945.
Deborah and "Sonny" Doniach were together for 75 years (until his death in 2001) and had two children, Sebastian Doniach (born 1934), who went on to become a condensed matter physicist at Stanford University
Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...
, and Vera Doniach (1936–1958).[
]
Career
Doniach was employed as a research assistant at the Royal Free Hospital then as an endocrinologist at Middlesex Hospital
Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clos ...
, London where she worked with the eminent thyroid surgeon, Rupert Vaughan-Hudson. Her observation of patients with Hashimoto's disease and knowledge of the field led her to realise that excess antibodies were an autoimmune reaction against the thyroid gland itself rather than external microbes.[
She collaborated with Ivan Roitt and Peter Campbell to further understand the autoimmune basis of Hashimoto's disease (citations). Doniach continued her studies at ]Middlesex Hospital
Middlesex Hospital was a teaching hospital located in the Fitzrovia area of London, England. First opened as the Middlesex Infirmary in 1745 on Windmill Street, it was moved in 1757 to Mortimer Street where it remained until it was finally clos ...
with various collaborators, including Roitt, Sheila Sherlock, Keith Taylor, and Gian Franco Bottazzo, and uncovered an autoimmune basis for numerous diseases, including pernicious anemia, primary biliary cirrhosis, and type I diabetes [ This led to the concept of organ-specific auto-immunity.]
In the 1960s, she joined the then-new Department of Immunology at Middlesex where she was appointed as one of the first Consultant Immunopathologists. In 1974 she became Professor of Clinical Immunology.
Awards and honours
*Van Meter prize of the American Goitre Association (jointly with Ivan Roitt), 1957[
* Gairdner Award Toronto (jointly with Ivan Roitt), 1964][
*Prize of the British Postgraduate Federation, 1967]
* Woman Scientist of the Year prize of the Association of American Women Scientists, 1984
Selected works
*
*
*
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Doniach, Deborah
1912 births
2004 deaths
20th-century British medical doctors
British immunologists
Physicians from Geneva
Medical doctors from London
Alumni of the UCL Medical School
20th-century British women medical doctors
20th-century British women scientists
British people of Ukrainian-Jewish descent
Swiss emigrants to the United Kingdom