12/06/2013 00:00
TW
0
STAFF REPORTER FRENCH immunologist and 1980 Nobel prize winner Jean Dausset who died in Palma on Saturday at the age of 92, was buried in Soller yesterday. Alfonso Ballesteros, president of the Royal Academy of Medicine in the Balearics and one of Dausset's personal doctors, said yesterday that the immunologist, famous for his work on organ transplants, had always wanted to be buried in the municipality.


Dausset, he explained, had been buried in a tomb ceded by Pedro Serra, owner of the newspaper group which publishes The Majorca Daily Bulletin, with whom the scientist had enjoyed a great friendship. Yesterday morning, Dausset's family opened a chapel for people to pay their last respects at the morgue of Son Valenti in Palma. Several local dignitaries attended the funeral including Central Government delegate in the Balearics, Ramon Socias.

Also present was Argentinian scientist Ezgardo Carosella who furthered the pioneering work of Dausset on gene compatibility, lowering the chances of a body rejecting the organ it receives from a donor.

Dausset had first qualified as a doctor at university in Paris and following the second world war, he had spearheaded a revolution in basic hospital care which launched France as a leading light in medical research during the second half of the 20th century.

Ballesteros pointed out in his address that Dausset had acquired a home in Palma five years ago which became a principal residence.
He had, however, been coming to Majorca for twenty years to spend the summer months. Dausset had apparently integrated perfectly in the medical and academic world of the Balearics and had been awarded an honorary doctorate by the University in 2005. In 2003 he had been made an adoptive son of the town of Soller.