Profile of Dennis L. Kasper

Jennifer Viegas

doi:10.1073/pnas.1920088116

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“I was working on the microbiome before it was called the microbiome,” says Harvard microbiologist and immunobiologist Dennis L. Kasper, who for over 4 decades has delineated the central role of the mammalian microbiota in immune system development, maturation, and regulation. His achievements, including identification of immunomodulatory molecules from the microbiome and demonstration of their potential to treat certain immune-mediated diseases, contributed to the foundation of a dynamic new research field. Elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 2018, Kasper reports in his Inaugural Article (1) the discovery of a bacterial lipid anchor to a polysaccharide capsule that is required for host antiinflammatory responses. He and his colleagues also elucidate the immunologic mechanisms underlying these responses, which could facilitate the development of therapeutic agents derived from symbiotic microbes.

Dennis L. Kasper. Image courtesy of Richard Groleau (Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA).

First to Attend College

Kasper was born in Chicago to first-generation American parents. His father was an airplane mechanic during World War II, who later founded a chain of successful sporting goods stores. “My father was a great solver of mechanical problems,” says Kasper. “His way of thinking influenced me.” Kasper’s grandfathers were also early influences. Despite having no formal education, both were successful businessmen who valued academia. Kasper’s grandfather encouraged him to become a professor, but when Kasper became the first in his family to attend college he initially did not follow this advice. He instead chose to be a premed student at the University of Illinois, Urbana. While attending medical school, Kasper developed a passion for research in the laboratory of friend and mentor William Moressi, an assistant professor of physiology. Kasper received his medical doctoral degree from the university in 1967.