From childhood in a factory yard in Poland to the top of world science and the development of best-selling drugs that have helped millions around the world
Prof. Michael Sela, a world-renowned expert in immunology, the sixth president of the Weizmann Institute of Science and a pillar of Israeli and international science, passed away at the age of 98.
Sela was a partner in the development of the drug "Copaxone" for the treatment of multiple sclerosis and in the development of three other drugs for the treatment of cancer, including "Arbitox" for the treatment of colon cancer and head and neck cancer. Despite the many patents he registered over the years, Sela prided himself first and foremost in his contribution to basic research and his scientific discoveries that did not yield commercial applications - studies that shed light on the genetic control of the immune system's operation and gave birth to completely new fields of knowledge in immunology. Sela received special recognition for his research contribution in the field of synthetic antigens.
The president of the Weizmann Institute of Science, Prof. Alon Chen, says in his memory: "Michael Sela will forever be remembered in the annals of science, as one of the mythological multifaceted scientists, who created and opened fields of research - and then led hundreds and thousands of scientists on research paths that changed the world... Michael shaped the special spirit of the Weizmann Institute of Science, as we know it today. As president of the institute, he safely led the institution to achievements in basic science, and at the same time also knew how to identify ways in which scientific discoveries may contribute to human well-being without differences between religion, nationality or gender.
"...His captivating personality attracted to the Institute eminent personalities, artists and intellectuals and first-class culture, who gave the Institute the same special spirit that hints and whispers in our ears to this day, that everything is possible; If we only want, it won't be a fairy tale. Under his baton, the institute became an organization with an extensive international presence. In the midst of all this, Michael was also one of the most beloved people in the institute. Anyone who has held senior positions at the institute knows how much this fact indicates his unique personality.
"Today we are saying goodbye to an inspirational leader, a brilliant intellectual, an original inventor, a groundbreaking scientist, a man of spirit and above all, a beloved person."
Sela was born in Poland in 1924, and as a child dreamed of becoming a chemist. He immigrated to Israel at the age of 17, after fleeing with his family from Poland through Romania, and began his scientific career at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem in 1941. "My first steps in the Land of Israel were studying chemistry at the Hebrew University, back then on Mount Scopus. After I finished my studies, I heard in Tel Aviv about a scientific conference at the Ziv Institute, and on June 3, 1946, I got on a bus to Rehovot," said Sela at the inauguration of the auditorium bearing his name in 2019. "I never imagined that I was going to be present at the laying of the cornerstone for the Weizmann Institute of Science in the presence of Dr. Haim Weizmann and other renowned scientists."
After completing his master's degree in chemistry in Jerusalem, he went to Geneva to study for a doctorate, but a few months later he traveled to Italy to help bring Jewish Holocaust survivors to Israel. After the declaration of independence of the State of Israel, he was appointed trade attaché at the Israeli mission in Czechoslovakia. Although his family fled to Israel before World War II, many of his relatives perished at the hands of the Nazis.
In 1950 he returned to Israel and joined the Weizmann Institute of Science as a research student in the biophysics laboratory of Prof. Ephraim Katzir, later President of the State of Israel. Katzir then studied simple synthetic models, called polyamino acids, which helped to study the properties of proteins. The study of the properties of poly-amino acids, and especially their immunological properties, led to the development of synthetic antigens - molecules that produce an immune response - which in turn paved the way for the development of copaxone.
For this research carried out at the Weizmann Institute, he received his third degree in protein chemistry from the Hebrew University, since in those years the institute was not allowed to award degrees on his behalf. In 1963 he was appointed a professor at the institute.
The discovery and understanding of the chemical structure and biological function of macromolecules ran through his scientific career as the other thread. His main areas of interest were the structure, function and mechanism of action of proteins, as well as understanding the molecular and genetic basis of the immune system response. Later he channeled his research also into cancer with the intention of creating small molecules that would block receptors on cancer cells. These studies formed the basis for the development of three cancer drugs - "Erbitox", "Vectivix" and "Portraza".
"I was born in Poland in the yard of a textile factory. I knew at the age of 12 or 13 how to weave and how to weave, so the research topic was quite close to what I thought at the time I needed to learn: about colors, about how to dye materials, about polymers and artificial threads. Little did I know that I would end up spending most of my life studying polymers of amino acids, the long chains of the building blocks of proteins. So, in a certain sense, what I thought was worth studying at the beginning, indeed became what I have been doing all my life," Sela said in 2019.
His contribution to the scientific community
Sela held many positions at the Weizmann Institute of Science. In 1963 he founded the Department of Immunological Chemistry at the Institute and headed it; In 1968 he was appointed head of the Department of Immunology; In 1970 he began to serve as Dean of the Faculty of Biology and Vice President of the Institute; In 1975 he was appointed the sixth president of the Weizmann Institute of Science and served in this position for ten years, after which he served as vice chairman of the institute's board of directors. Over the years, Sela went on research periods at leading institutions around the world, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) of the United States, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Harvard University, the Collège de France and the Pasteur Institute. Sela published more than 800 articles, chapters and books in the fields of immunology, biochemistry and molecular biology.
Over the years he also held many academic and public positions in Israel and around the world. In 1967 he was appointed an external member of the Institute of Immunology of the Max Planck Society; Between the years 1974-1970 he served as vice chairman and chairman of the advisory board of the Basel Institute for Immunology; In 1979-1975 he served as chairman of the European Organization for Molecular Biology; At the same time, between the years 1978 and 1981, he headed the scientific advisory board for the European Laboratory for Molecular Biology in Heidelberg, upon its establishment; In 1980-1977 he was the president of the international umbrella organization for immunology research societies, and in those years he also served as a professional consultant to the World Health Organization in the field of medical research. From 1989 to 1996 he served as president of the joint scientific council of the Pasteur Institute in Paris and the Weizmann Institute of Science and was later appointed honorary president of the Pasteur-Weizmann Council.
In 2000 he was elected a member of the academic committee of the Open University. He also served as a member of the Israeli National Academy of Sciences, the United States National Academy of Sciences, the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, the Russian Academy of Sciences, the French Academy of Sciences and the American Philosophical Society. During his career, he also held the position of president of the Israeli Association for Biochemistry, chairman of the Israeli Association for Immunology, member of the Council for Higher Education, chairman of the Amos de Schlit Foundation, chief scientist of the New England Medical Center in Massachusetts, and a professional consultant to UNESCO And to the European Organization for Molecular Biology.
Awards and badges
Sela won a very long series of awards and recognition for his scientific activity. Already at the age of 35, he won the Israel Prize for Life Sciences Research in 1959 and then won the Rothschild Prize for Chemistry (1968); in the Otto Warburg Medal on behalf of the German Society for Biological Chemistry (1968); in the prize of the Institute de la Vie in France (1984); The Swiss Joubert Prize (1986) and the Albert Einstein Gold Medal on behalf of UNESCO (1995). Sela was also the first non-German winner of the purse medal on behalf of the Max Planck Society (1996) and won the health prize of the Belgian Baye Latour Foundation (1997). Sela and his colleague Prof. Ruth Arnon also won the Wolf Prize for Medicine in 1998.
Sela was awarded honorary doctorate degrees from many universities in Israel and the world, including the universities of Bordeaux, Strasbourg, Mexico, Tufts University, Colby College, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Tel Aviv University and Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Sela was also awarded the title of Honorary Fellow of the Open University and was awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Merit of Germany and the French Legion of Honor.
Patron of the sciences and the arts
Sela founded the "Yade-Sela" foundation, which supports basic research projects in all fields of natural and exact sciences. Along with his support of scientific research, he devoted a great deal of his time to culture and art: he was one of the first supporters of the Batsheva Dance Company, he was the honorary president of the public council of the company, and the Michael Sela Fund for the Cultivation of Young Talent in Batsheva is named after him. He also served as honorary vice-chairman of the first Arthur Rubinstein competitions; Served on the board of directors of the Rimon Music School and the Academy of Music and Dance in Jerusalem. Sela was one of the founders of the Yitzhak Rabin Center and a member of the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation. In 2002 he was appointed chairman of the Israeli National Committee of the Organization of International Colleges (UWC). On the occasion of his 80th and 90th birthdays, international scientific conferences were held in his honor at the Weizmann Institute, and in 2019 an auditorium named after him was inaugurated at the institute, which holds many cultural events for the residents of Rehovot and the surrounding area.
Sela was also fluent in many languages. English was his seventh language after Polish, German, Russian, Romanian, French and Hebrew. After acquiring this international language, he also continued to study Italian and Czech.
Sela left behind a wife and three daughters.
