Eva Klein
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Discovery of natural killer cells
- Establishing cell lines from Burkitt's lymphoma
Eva Klein | |
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 Klein with her husband George in 1979 | |
| Born | Eva Fischer 22 January 1925 |
| Died | 19 January 2025 (aged 99) |
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| Spouse | |
| Children | 3 |
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Eva Klein (née Eva Fischer; 22 January 1925 – 19 January 2025) was a Hungarian-Swedish scientist. Klein worked at the Karolinska Institute since leaving Hungary in 1947.[1][2] She is regarded as a founder of cancer immunology.
Her life and career choices as a young Jewish woman were constrained by discrimination, and she survived the late stages of German occupation in hiding.[1] A medical doctor with a PhD in biology, she worked in cancer immunology and virology.
In the 1960s, she led the discovery of natural killer cells[3][1] and developing Burkitt's lymphoma cell lines.[4][5] She pursued her own lines of work as well as working closely with her husband, George Klein.[6]
In 1975, the U.S. Cancer Research Institute established the William B. Coley Award for Distinguished Research in Basic and Tumor Immunology. The inaugural award was shared by 16 scientists considered to be "founders of cancer immunology", including Eva and George Klein.[7] Their award noted their "discoveries of tumor-specific antigens in the mouse, to the most comprehensive immunological analysis of a human cancer, Burkitt's lymphoma".[8]
Eva Fischer was born on 22 January 1925 in Budapest, Hungary,[9] to a well-to-do Jewish family.[1] She attended private school, with an interest in sports, theater, and science (inspired by the life and work of Marie Curie).[6] Her career choices were constrained by the political situation, with worsening anti-semitism and persecution when Hungary was occupied by Germany after she finished secondary school.[1][6]
Fischer attended medical school at the University of Budapest,[5] and in 1944–45 she and several members of her family survived by hiding at the Histology Institute of the University of Budapest.[1] They were helped by János Szirmai, including forging documents.[1] Szirmai was honored as one of the Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem.[10] Fischer broke from her medical studies to act in the theater, but returned to medicine.[6][11]
Eva married another medical student George Klein, leaving Hungary to live in Sweden in 1947.[1] She completed her medical degree at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden in 1955.[9]
In addition, Klein was awarded honorary degrees from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln (in 1993) and the Ohio State University (in 2003).
Career
Klein became an assistant professor at the Karolinska Institute in 1948, and achieved tenure in 1979.[2] She established her own areas of research from 1948 encouraged by Torbjörn Caspersson from Karolinska's Department of Cell Research and Genetics, while also collaborating closely with her husband throughout her career.[6][11]
Eva Klein published over 500 papers, and served as an editor of the journal, Seminars in Cancer Biology.[5]
