In Memoriam - A Tribute to Alain L. de Weck

widely known for its allergy research and attracted many scientists from all over the world. He was engaged in various projects such as developing better diagnostic techniques with in vitro cellular assays and the sulfidoleukotriene release from basophils after priming with interleukin 3, aspects of T-cell regulation, IgE and anti-IgE antibodies as well as drug allergy. In 1990, he started the European Network of Drug Allergy, which became an Professor Alain L. de Weck passed away on April 8, 2013, at the age of 84, and we have lost one of the great characters in International Allergology of the second half of the 20th century. Alain de Weck was born in 1928 in Les Avants northeast of the town of Montreux. His father was a practicing pneumologist in the Swiss mountains. There, he got early impressions on medical treatment. He then studied medicine in Fribourg, Lausanne and Geneva and became a resident at the Dermatology Department in Geneva with Prof. Werner Jadassohn. Already at that time he had developed profound interests in immunology trying to study mechanisms of contact dermatitis; immunology as a discipline hardly existed in those days. From 1958 to 1960, Alain de Weck worked in the laboratory of Herman Eisen at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, Miss., USA, where he was particularly interested in studying the interaction of small molecules – in particular penicillins – with proteins. Alain de Weck was always keen to apply scientific basic knowledge to clinical practice. Through his work, it became clear that low molecular weight monovalent haptens are not able to elicit allergic immediate-type reactions such as histamine release from mast cells but that bridging of at least two or several binding sites is mandatory. Coming back from the USA in 1961, he built up a division of allergy research at the University of Bern which finally became the Institute of Allergy and Clinical Immunology and which he lead until his retirement in 1993. During his leadership, this rather small institute became Published online: June 27, 2013