About

Dr. Felix T. Rapaport

Dr. Felix T. Rapaport was an accomplished surgeon and scientist whose early contributions in the field of transplantation made him well-known throughout the community. Born in Munich in 1929, the Jewish Rapaport family fled to France in 1936, and later was forced to leave the continent altogether to avoid the atrocities of World War II. After initially settling in the Dominican Republic, Rapaport came to the United States in 1945, where he received both his undergraduate and his medical degree from New York University. His mentor, Dr. John Converse, was an early researcher in the field of transplantation; Rapaport quickly inherited this interest.
After battling a near-fatal case of hepatitis, and a stint in the United States Navy as an officer, Rapaport’s influence on the medical community began to take off rapidly. Beginning in 1958, his studies of skin allograft rejection in human subjects supported the belief in tissue typing. His research, along with the studies being done in dogs by Dr. Jean Dausset in France, defined the human (and dog) leukocyte antigen systems, a key piece of the transplantation puzzle. Dausset received the Nobel Prize for his discoveries in 1980, crediting Rapaport for his equal contribution to the revolutionary findings. Rapaport made many other contributions to the field, as well, including describing the tolerogenic role of stem cells, factors that negatively influenced cellular immunity, and further studies into antigens. In addition to his scientific contributions, Rapaport also served as a “professional father” to the foundling study of transplantation. [ref 1] He was heavily involved in the Transplantation Society from its very beginning, and was its very first Secretary, a later President, and a 35-year council member. He served as the editor of the journal Transplantation Proceedings for over three decades, and was an outspoken advocate for issues relating to transplantation, especially on an international scale.

Rapaport and Starzl were acquainted through their early work, and the two were close friends and colleagues, even when they did not always necessarily agree. (Doc. 1) Though they did not work together physically in the lab or operating room, their correspondence reveals a relationship of intellectual exchanges of ideas, concerns, and new findings. (Doc. 2) Starzl’s respect for his colleague is apparent when reading through the documents, particularly in his introductory speech for Rapaport’s 1998 receipt of the Medawar Prize. (Doc. 3, Doc. 4) Dr. Rapaport passed away in 2001.

References 

1. Starzl, TE: Obituary: Felix T. Rapaport. The Journal of the American Medical Association 285: 3032, 2001. http://d-scholarship.pitt.edu/5547/