In memoriam

Professor Marek P. Dąbrowski, MD, PhD, was born 10 January 1938 in Lwów, Poland. He graduated from Tadeusz Reytan Secondary School in 1955. In 1962 he received his diploma from the Medical Department of the Medical University in Warsaw.

Interested in the homeostasis mechanisms, he focused his attention mainly on the clinical disciplines associated with physiological basis of medical procedures: internal medicine with endocrinology and neurology, and from the fundamental biological disciplines – histology with embryology, as well as physiology and pathophysiology. The above interests helped to shape his subsequent professional development. He was a visionary in immunology. Immunology in the 1960s, through the discovery of the role of the thymus, subpopulations of T and B lymphocytes as well as the immunological cellular response mechanisms, radically reshaped the traditional view of the immunological system. Aside from its defensive role through the humoral mechanisms, the newly discovered functions began to emerge in our understanding of the immunological system. Immunological tolerance, recognition of organism’s own tissues and destruction of the hostile ones, cooperation between individual cells, aid in the blood production process, multihormonal disorders after thymectomy – they all pointed to the homeostatic role of the immunological system and its functional relation to both nervous and hormonal systems.

In 1969 he received his PhD in the Military Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology for his thesis on role of thymus in polyartritis. The results of his work, indicating the dependency of the cellular immunological response on the thymus as well as its influence on the pace of cellular proliferation of the lymphocytes, inspired further research.

The above research based upon the system of synchronized growth of lymphocytes devised by J. Steffen and A. Michałowski constituted the basis for his postdoctoral dissertation Renewal of cellular response (reactive T lymphocyte type) in the lymphoidal population deprived of the influence of the thymus. In 1975 he received the title of professor con venia legendi specializing in immunology.

The above period had been decisive for his later work – it specified his interests and led to his further scientific independence. Frequent contacts with globally renowned immunologists, his proficiency in the English language and new scientific methods (above...


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