Director, Baylor Institute for Immunology Research. As the director of the Baylor Institute for Immunology Research (BIIR), Jacques Banchereau, Ph.D., from France, studies the human immune system. In 2004, Dr. Banchereau was appointed to the newly established W.W. Caruth, Jr. Chair in Organ Transplantation Immunology at Baylor Research Institute.

Dr. Banchereau’s specific areas of expertise include: cytokines, proteins that control the immune system and its relationship with other body systems; B lymphocytes, the cells that produce antibodies; and dendritic cells, the sentinels of the immune system which initiate the response to vaccines.

In 1996, Dr. Banchereau was recruited to establish BIIR, which is dedicated to the study of the immune responses observed in various diseases, including cancer, allergies, autoimmunity and others, as well as during organ transplantation. One important goal of the BIIR is to define the potential therapeutic use of dendritic cells as vaccine agents, again emphasizing cancer and organ transplantation.

To date, Dr. Banchereau has published more than 240 original papers and more than 150 reviews and book chapters concentrating on cytokines, B lymphocytes, and dendritic cells, and specifically on their involvement in allergy, autoimmunity, transplantation and cancer. His work has been published in major international journals, including Nature, Science, Immunity, the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, and others. Dr. Banchereau serves as an associate editor to several publications including the Journal of Experimental Medicine, the Journal of Clinical Immunology, and Cellular Immunology. Dr. Banchereau has co-edited two books, one focused on dendritic cells and the other on immune tolerance.

Dr. Banchereau teaches at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School as an adjunct professor of microbiology. His teaching records include 25 graduate students who obtained their Ph.D. under his direction, mostly from the University of Lyon in France.

Before joining Baylor, Dr. Banchereau was a member of the Schering Plough Laboratory for Immunological Research, located near Lyon, France. He was the director of this organization for 13 years. In this capacity, he has been an inventor/co-inventor on 16 patents and patent applications in the field of biotechnology.

Dr. Banchereau received a bachelor of science in pharmacology in 1975 from the University of Angers, his hometown in the Loire Valley. In 1980 he received his Ph.D. in Biochemistry from the University of Paris. While at the university, Dr. Banchereau became certified in clinical biochemistry, immunology, microbiology and parasitology