Paul M. Allen


Paul Malone Allen is an American cellular immunologist and current Robert L. Kroc Professor of Pathology and Immunology at Washington University School of Medicine in Saint Louis, Missouri. Allen holds prestigious MERIT status with the National Institutes of Health.

Education and career

Paul Allen received his bachelor's degree in 1974 from the University of Michigan followed by a master's degree in 1977 and a doctoral degree in 1981 with John Niederhuber and a thesis titled "Functional and serological examination of the central portion of the I region of the H-2 gene complex", both from the University of Michigan. He completed a pathology research fellowship at Harvard Medical School with Emil Unanue and joined the Washington University faculty in 1985.
From 2005 to 2006, Allen served as the president of the American Association of Immunologists. He is a member of the Editorial Board for Immunity.

Research

Allen's work specializes in the study of how T lymphocytes recognize antigens and initiate an immune response. He and Emil R. Unanue were responsible for the discovery that antigen-presenting cells present antigens to bind to a special group of molecules known as the major histocompatibility complex.

Notable works