Ruth Sonntag Nussenzweig (20 June 1928 – 1 April 2018) was an Austrian-Brazilian immunologist specializing in the development of

malaria vaccine A malaria vaccine is a vaccine that is used to prevent malaria. The only approved use of a vaccine outside the EU, as of 2022, is RTS,S, known by the brand name ''Mosquirix''. In October 2021, the WHO for the first time recommended the large-s ...

s. In a career spanning over 60 years, she was primarily affiliated with

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then- Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, th ...

(NYU). She served as C.V. Starr Professor of Medical and Molecular Parasitology at

Langone Medical Center NYU Langone Health is an academic medical center located in New York City, New York, United States. The health system consists of NYU Grossman School of Medicine and NYU Long Island School of Medicine, both part of New York University (NYU), and m ...

Research Professor Professor (commonly abbreviated as Prof.) is an academic rank at universities and other post-secondary education and research institutions in most countries. Literally, ''professor'' derives from Latin as a "person who professes". Professors ...

at the NYU Department of Pathology, and finally Professor Emerita of Microbiology and

Pathology Pathology is the study of the causes and effects of disease or injury. 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 ...

at the NYU Department of Microbiology.

Biography

Dr. Nussenzweig was born Ruth Sonntag in

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

, to a secular Jewish family in which both of her parents were physicians. In 1939, after the

Anschluss The (, or , ), also known as the (, en, Annexation of Austria), was the annexation of the Federal State of Austria into the German Reich on 13 March 1938. The idea of an (a united Austria and Germany that would form a " Greater Germany ...

, the Sonntags fled to

São Paulo São Paulo (, ; Portuguese for ' Saint Paul') is the most populous city in Brazil, and is the capital of the state of São Paulo, the most populous and wealthiest Brazilian state, located in the country's Southeast Region. Listed by the Ga ...

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

. While attending the

University of São Paulo The University of São Paulo ( pt, Universidade de São Paulo, USP) is a public university in the Brazilian state of São Paulo. It is the largest Brazilian public university and the country's most prestigious educational institution, the bes ...

School of Medicine, she became involved in leftist politics and met Victor Nussenzweig, her future husband and lifelong research partner. After receiving her

M.D. Doctor of Medicine (abbreviated M.D., from the Latin ''Medicinae Doctor'') is a medical degree, the meaning of which varies between different jurisdictions. In the United States, and some other countries, the M.D. denotes a professional degree. ...

, Nussenzweig moved to Paris for a research fellowship. In 1963, she did further graduate work at the NYU laboratory of immunologist Zoltán Óváry. In 1965, the Nussenzweigs returned to São Paulo, and found that working conditions had become untenable since the 1964 military coup; many of their friends and colleagues had been jailed by the regime, and Victor was singled out for questioning by the School's new military administration. Through the intervention of Baruj Benacerraf, both Nussenzweigs obtained

Assistant Professor Assistant Professor is an academic rank just below the rank of an associate professor used in universities or colleges, mainly in the United States and Canada. Overview This position is generally taken after earning a doctoral degree A docto ...

ships at NYU, and moved permanently to the United States. Dr. Nussenzweig returned briefly to Brazil to defend her doctoral thesis, earning her

Ph.D. A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, Ph.D., or DPhil; Latin: or ') is the most common degree at the highest academic level awarded following a course of study. PhDs are awarded for programs across the whole breadth of academic fields. Because it is ...

from the University of São Paulo in 1968. Dr. Nussenzweig's family includes multiple people who have made significant contributions to research and academia, including husband Victor, Professor Emeritus at the NYU School of Medicine; son Michel C. Nussenzweig, Professor of Medicine at The Rockefeller University; daughter Sonia Nussenzweig-Hotimsky, Professor of Anthropology at the Foundation School of Sociology and Politics in São Paulo; and son Andre Nussenzweig, Distinguished Investigator at the

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

Research work

In 1967, Dr. Nussenzweig demonstrated that mice could acquire immunity to the ''

Plasmodium berghei ''Plasmodium berghei'' is a species in the genus ''Plasmodium'' subgenus '' Vinckeia''. It is a protozoan parasite that causes malaria in certain rodents. Originally, isolated from thicket rats in Central Africa, ''P. berghei'' is one of four ' ...

'' parasite. She did so by exposing the mice to ''P. berghei''

sporozoites Apicomplexans, a group of intracellular parasites, have life cycle stages that allow them to survive the wide variety of environments they are exposed to during their complex life cycle. Each stage in the life cycle of an apicomplexan organism is ...

that had been inactivated by

X-ray An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...

irradiation Irradiation is the process by which an object is exposed to radiation. The exposure can originate from various sources, including natural sources. Most frequently the term refers to ionizing radiation, and to a level of radiation that will serve ...

Major publications

*Huang, Jing; Li, Xiangming; Coelho-Dos-Reis, Jordana G A; Zhang, Min; Mitchell, Robert; Nogueira, Raquel Tayar; Tsao, Tiffany; Noe, Amy R; Ayala, Ramses; Sahi, Vincent; Gutierrez, Gabriel M; Nussenzweig, Victor; Wilson, James M; Nardin, Elizabeth H; Nussenzweig, Ruth S; Tsuji, Moriya. "Human immune system mice immunized with Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein induce protective human humoral immunity against malaria." ''Journal of Immunological Methods''. 2015 Sep;:42-50 *Teixeira, Lais H; Tararam, Cibele A; Lasaro, Marcio O; Camacho, Ariane G A; Ersching, Jonatan; Leal, Monica T; Herrera, Socrates; Bruna-Romero, Oscar; Soares, Irene S; Nussenzweig, Ruth S; Ertl, Hildegund C J; Nussenzweig, Victor; Rodrigues, Mauricio M. "Immunogenicity of a Prime-Boost Vaccine Containing the Circumsporozoite Proteins of Plasmodium vivax in Rodents. ''Infection and Immunity''. 2014 Feb;82(2):793-807 *Mishra, Satish; Nussenzweig, Ruth S; Nussenzweig, Victor. "Antibodies to Plasmodium circumsporozoite protein (CSP) inhibit sporozoite's cell traversal activity." ''Journal of Immunological Methods''. 2012 Mar;377(1-2):47-52 *Camacho, Ariane Guglielmi Ariza; Teixeira, Lais Helena; Bargieri, Daniel Youssef; Boscardin, Silvia Beatriz; Soares, Irene da Silva; Nussenzweig, Ruth Sonntag; Nussenzweig, Victor; Rodrigues, Mauricio Martins. "TLR5-dependent immunogenicity of a recombinant fusion protein containing an immunodominant epitope of malarial circumsporozoite protein and the FliC flagellin of Salmonella Typhimurium." ''Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz''. 2011 Aug;106 Suppl 1:167-171 *Mishra, Satish; Rai, Urvashi; Shiratsuchi, Takayuki; Li, Xiangming; Vanloubbeeck, Yannick; Cohen, Joe; Nussenzweig, Ruth S; Winzeler, Elizabeth A; Tsuji, Moriya; Nussenzweig, Victor. "Identification of non-CSP antigens bearing CD8 epitopes in mice immunized with irradiated sporozoites." ''Vaccine''. 2011 Oct 6;29(43):7335-7342

Awards

Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize The Paul Ehrlich and Ludwig Darmstaedter Prize is an annual award bestowed by the since 1952 for investigations in medicine. It carries a prize money of 120,000 Euro. The prize awarding ceremony is traditionally held on March 14, the birthday of N ...

, 1985 *

Carlos J. Finlay Prize for Microbiology The Carlos J. Finlay Prize is a biennial scientific prize sponsored by the Government of Cuba and awarded since 1980 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to people or organizations for their outstanding ...

(Cuba), 1985 * Albert B. Sabin Gold Medal, 2008 *

Warren Alpert Foundation Prize The Warren Alpert Foundation Prize is awarded annually to scientist(s) whose scientific achievements have led to the prevention, cure or treatment of human diseases or disorders, and/or whose research constitutes a seminal scientific finding that ho ...

, 2015 *

National Order of Scientific Merit (Brazil) The National Order of Scientific Merit ( pt, Ordem Nacional do Mérito Científico) is an honor bestowed upon Brazilian and foreign personalities recognized for their scientific and technical contributions to the cause and development of science in ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sonntag Nussenzweig, Ruth 1928 births 2018 deaths New York University faculty Malariologists Vaccinologists Brazilian microbiologists Brazilian people of Austrian-Jewish descent Members of the United States National Academy of Sciences Austrian emigrants to Brazil Brazilian expatriates in the United States Women parasitologists Scientists from Vienna Members of the National Academy of Medicine