Robin Coombs
Born	9 January 1921(1921-01-09) London, England.
Died	25 February 2006 (aged 85)
Nationality	British
Fields	Immunology
Institutions	Corpus Christi College, Cambridge
Alma mater	Edinburgh University; King's College, Cambridge
Known for	Coombs test; Gell-Coombs classification

Robert Royston Amos ("Robin") Coombs, (9 January 1921 – 25 February 2006), was a British immunologist, co-discoverer of the Coombs test (1945) used for detecting antibodies in various clinical scenarios, such as Rh disease and blood transfusion.

Contents 1 Biography 2 Works 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Biography

He was born in London and studied veterinary medicine at Edinburgh University. In 1943 he went up to King's College, Cambridge where he commenced work on a doctorate, which he gained in 1947. Before finishing his doctorate, he developed and published methods to detect antibodies with Dr Arthur Mourant and Dr Rob Race in 1945.^[1]. This, his first discovery is the test now referred to as the Coombs test, which according to the legend he first devised while travelling on the train.^[2]

Coombs became a professor and researcher at the Department of Pathology of University of Cambridge, becoming a Fellow of Corpus Christi College, and a founder of its Division of Immunology. He was appointed the fourth Quick Professor of Biology in 1966 and continued to work at Cambridge University until 1988^[2]

He received honorary doctoral degrees 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 an 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.^[2]

[edit] Works

The Coombs test, which he developed and published together with Dr Arthur Mourant and Dr Rob Race in 1945, has formed the base of a large number of laboratory investigations in the fields of hematology and immunology^[1][2][3].

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 reactions^[4].

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 proteins.^[5]

[edit] References

1. ^ ^{a b} Coombs RRA, Mourant AE, Race RR (1945). "Detection of weak and "incomplete" Rh agglutinins: a new test". Lancet 246: 15–6. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(45)90806-3. 
2. ^ ^{a b c d} Pincock S (2006). "Robert Royston Amos (Robin) Coombs". Lancet 367: 1234. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(06)68528-0. 
3. ^ Coombs RR (1998). "Historical note: past, present and future of the antiglobulin test". Vox Sang 74: 67–73. doi:10.1159/000030908. PMID 9501403. 
4. ^ Gell PGH, Coombs RRA (1963). Clinical Aspects of Immunology. London: Blackwell. 
5. ^ Coombs RRA, Parish WE, Walls AF (2000). Sudden Infant Death Syndrome: Could a healthy infant succumb to inhalation-anaphylaxis during sleep leading to cot death?. Cambridge Publications Ltd. ISBN 0-9540081-0-3. 

[edit] External links

• The Independent 6 March 2006
• New York Times

Persondata
NAME	Coombs, Robin
ALTERNATIVE NAMES
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Immunology
DATE OF BIRTH	1921-1-9
PLACE OF BIRTH	London, England.
DATE OF DEATH	2006-2-25
PLACE OF DEATH