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Robert Royston Amos ("Robin") Coombs, (January 9 1921 – February 25 2006), was a British physician and immunologist, co-discoverer of the Coombs test (1945) used for testing the presence of antibodies (antiglobulins) in various clinical scenarios, such as Rh disease and blood transfusion.
Biography
He was born in London and studied veterinary medicine at Edinburgh University. In 1943 he commenced work on a doctorate at Cambridge University, where he continued to work until 1988Pincock S. Robert Royston Amos (Robin) Coombs. Lancet 2006;367:1234. DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68528-0.. Already before obtaining his doctorate in 1947 he had described the antiglobulin test that would bear his name.
He became a professor and researcher at the Department of Pathology of University of Cambridge, and a founder of its Division of Immunology.
He received honorary doctoral degress by the University of Guelph, Canada, and the University of Edinburgh, Scotland and was a Fellow of the Royal Society of the United Kingdom (1965), a Fellow of the Royal College of Pathologists and a Honorary Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians.
He was married to Anne Blomfield, his first graduate student. They had a son and a daughter.
Works
His first discovery was the test now referred to as the Coombs test, which according to the legend he first devised while travelling on the train, and developed and published together with Dr Arthur Mourant and Dr Rob RaceCoombs RRA, Mourant AE, Race RR. Detection of weak and "incomplete" Rh agglutinins: a new test. Lancet 1945;246:15-6. DOI 10.1016/S0140-6736(45)90806-3.. It has formed the base of a large number of laboratory investigations in the fields of hematology and immunologyCoombs RR. Historical note: past, present and future of the antiglobulin test. Vox Sang 1998;74:67-73. PMID 9501403..
Together with Professor Philip George Howthern Gell, he developed a classification of immune mechanisms of tissue injury, now known as the "Gell-Coombs classification", comprising four types of reactionsGell PGH, Coombs RRA. Clinical Aspects of Immunology. London: Blackwell, 1963..
Together with W.E. Parish and A.F. Wells he put forward an explanation of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) as an anaphylactic reaction to dairy proteinsCoombs RRA, Parish WE, Walls AF. Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Could a healthy infant succumb to inhalation-anaphylaxis during sleep leading to cot death?. Cambridge Publications Ltd, 2000. ISBN 0954008103.
References
External links
- The Independent 6 March 2006
- New York Times
1921 births | 2006 deaths | British scientists | Veterinarians | British doctors | Fellows of the Royal Society
"Robin Coombs"