John
F. Kearney (b. 1945) completed
his Ph.D. studies in immunology at the University of Melbourne,
Australia
in 1973 and carried out postdoctoral studies at UAB with Drs. Cooper
and
Lawton on in vitro models of immunoglobulin isotope
switching. He
joined the microbiology staff in 1977 and has continued his studies on
B cell differentiation. In 1978 he spent a year with Dr. Klaus
Rajewsky
in Cologne, West Germany where he learned hybridoma technology and also
isolated one of the most widely used fusing plasmacytomas. He has
since
exploited this technique as well as transgenic and knockout mice to
dissect
out complexities of immune regulation. His outside
interests
include road biking and gardening.