IN MEMORIUM
Rose Payne died on April 18, 1999 after a brief illness, a few months short of her 90th birthday. Rose never did agree to host a Workshop, which explains why Paul Terasaki ran two of them. Nonetheless, Rose Payne's contributions to the Workshops and to the field of HLA in general rank as high as any of the Workshop hosts, resulting in her unofficial designation as the Queen of HLA.Rose O. Payne, Ph.D. After investigations into the causes and effects of antibodies to white blood cells, Rose turned her attention to the definition of the antigens with which they reacted and their genetic control. Following Dausset's publication of the first HLA antigen (MAC or HLA-A2), and van Rood's demonstration of the biallelic 4a4b system, Rose Payne (with the help of Walter Bodmer) established the existence of the first three Class I alleles (HLA-A1, A2 and A3). She established that they were different from van Rood's 4a and 4b. Subsequently she participated in the demonstration that her LA series and van Rood's 4a4b series were products of linked genes on the same chromosome. In subsequent years she was the first to identify B46 in Chinese, the occurrence of two C locus antigens on the same haplotype, and DR10. She clarified the relations between and within many HLA cross reacting groups. Rose was a very active member of the Workshops from the beginning, and served on the WHO Nomenclature Committee for many years. In addition her studies on HLA compatibility and transplantation, on HLA and disease and on the differences in HLA phenotype frequencies among various populations were important additions to the literature. Rose was a meticulous investigator, repeating tests over and over in view of the imperfect techniques originally available. She was a strong critic of opinions expressed without adequate data to back them up. Her own papers were rewritten over and over until they said exactly what they should based on the data she had. She began collecting HLA typing sera from previously pregnant women early in her investigations, and was very generous in sharing her very well characterized HLA typing sera to help other laboratories get started. One of her most important contributions is the remarkable series of superb scientists in the field of HLA who were convinced to enter the field after working with her: Sir Walter Bodmer, Julia Bodmer, Andrew McMichael, Takahiko Sasazuki, Chaim Brautbar and Carl Grumet. It was also my privilege to work closely with her over many years. We all miss her wise and helpful counsel. Herbert A. Perkins, M.D. Blood Centers of the Pacific San Franbcisco, California |
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Rose Payne's roots were imbedded in the free-thinking, utopian community in which she was raised. Her commitment to science consisted equally of a desire to learn and to use that knowledge to help people live better lives, a commitment which extended to the broader political arena. Trained as a bacteriologist during the depression years, she came to Stanford in 1948 to work with Dr. Bud Evans, a hematologist who was interested in autoimmune disorders of red cells and plateletes. After working as a research assistant for several years, she became an independent investigator at Stanford in the Division of Hematology when she was in her middle 40's, an age when many researchers are slowing down. As a result of studying the basis of certain febrile blood transfusion reactions, she bacame one of the pioneers enabling the clarification of the role of the "Major Histocompatibility Complex." Selecting antibodies to leukocytes as her area of specialization, she established that they were alloantibodies stimulated by blood transfusions or pregnancies. She showed that these antibodies explained most chill-fever transfusion reactions and could be prevented by giving blood components depleted of leukocytes. Based on her observations we can use "leuco-poor" units today to avoid such febrile transfusion reactions. She recognized that the blood of women who had had several children with the same father had antibody(s) which could be used to identify others in the population who shared tissue types with the father and children. A complex panel of sera of multiparous women could be used to identify the types of leukocytes in the population. With the help of Walter Bodmer, she identified the first three Class I alleles of the HLA system. Over a period of 25 years she was a major contributor to the recognition of the new HLA antigens, to their variability among ethnic groups, to the importance of their role in organ transplantation and to their association with diseases. Her meticulous work and her probing questions made her a leader in the International Histocompatibility Workshops and the WHO sponsored HLA Nomenclature Committee. In 1972, Stanford honored her by promoting her (a non-M.D.) to the title of Professor of Medicine (Hematology). She became Professor Emerita in 1974 and transferred her activities to the Stanford Blood Bank where she worked productively until her retirement on August 31, 1990. Her observations greatly facilitated the understanding of the role of the "MHC" in transplant rejection, immune regulation and disease susceptibility. In 1985, the American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics honored her with the establishment of an annual Rose Payne Distinguished Scientist Award. |