It is with great regret and sadness that we announce the passing of the founding Editor-in-Chief of International Reviews of Immunology, Constantin A. Bona, M.D., Ph.D., Professor Emeritus of Microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (ISMMS).
Nearly three decades ago, his vision and leadership led to this journal that has now a global coverage, an editorial team representing major geographical areas, and an impact factor that positions it within the top 25% of reviews journals in its field. All of these were possible because of Dr. Bona's leadership of the journal until 2005, followed by his support and guidance as an Emeritus Editor until his passing on December 22nd 2015.
Dr. Bona was born in 1933 in Romania, in the beautiful Caras-Severin district, and earned his medical degree in 1958 from the Faculty of Medicine in Bucharest. He was interested in basic immunology from the very start of his career and after a brief internship with his Alma Mater, he took charge of the Immunochemistry Laboratory at Romania's leading institute in the field, the Cantacuzino National Institute of Microbiology and Immunology.
In 1968, Dr. Bona joined the University of Paris, where he earned his Ph.D., after which he worked for several years at the Pasteur Institute. In 1977, Dr. Bona joined the Laboratory of Immunology at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD. He then eventually joined Mount Sinai faculty as an Associate Professor of Microbiology, after a brief tenure at the Rockefeller University. After joining the Mount Sinai faculty in 1979, Dr. Bona had an impressive, three-decades-long career as an immunologist, researcher and internationally recognized educator and scholar. In 2011, Dr. Bona was appointed Professor Emeritus of Microbiology at the Icahn School of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. During his tenure at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Dr. Bona has also been a Visiting Professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1984, and at Kyoto University in 1996–1997. Dr. Bona received many awards and recognitions, including two Doctor Honoris Causa degrees, and full membership in the Romanian Academy.
Dr. Bona published more than 400 papers in peer-reviewed journals, including high-impact contributions in immunology and microbiology for Science, Nature and the Journal of Experimental Medicine, dozens of chapters in textbooks and monographs, and authored or edited five books.
Dr. Bona's early passion and focus were innate immunity, antibodies and B cells in general, including their biology and role in the overall defense against microbial pathogens. He characterized the first human B cell mitogen from Nocardia (a gram-positive bacterial species), formally demonstrating that this type of immune cell is pre-programmed to rapidly respond to microbial threats.
During the early 70s, realizing the potential immunogenicity of antibodies, he became fascinated with the complexity of the idiotypic network. That led to four advances in the field: the discovery of shared or regulatory idiotypes, the mimicry of bacterial polysaccharides by anti-idiotypic antibodies, the cloning and sequencing of anti-idiotypic antibodies and, more recently, the generation of chimeric immunoglobulin molecules containing viral epitopes engrafted onto variable domains. The latter was a very fertile area of basic and translational research during the late 80s and 90s, resulting in the concept of vaccination against B and T cell epitopes of microbial or tumoral origin through the use of recombinant immunoglobulins. Dr. Bona utilized extensively this type of construct to characterize in depth the mechanisms of immune defense against influenza viruses during his long and fruitful tenure at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, establishing the synergistic role of anti-flu T and B cell immunity. As an extension of this work, he was amongst the pioneers in genetic or DNA-based vaccination, as a modality to elicit both cellular and humoral immunity. His work during the 90s in this area resulted in key knowledge regarding neonatal immune responsiveness, the role of dendritic cells in DNA vaccination, and the possibility to elicit cross-reactive immunity against influenza by utilizing T cell epitope-directed vaccines.
Dr. Bona's lifetime passion involved autoimmunity and inflammation. The excruciatingly complicated mechanisms underlying autoimmunity required, for their elucidation, inquisitive minds such as his. Dr. Bona was drawn to this field as it represented—and still represents—a major intellectual challenge in immunology. Dr. Bona's work led to the first demonstration of the existence and role of anti-fibrillin-1 autoantibodies in scleroderma. During more recent years, Dr. Bona studied the molecular mechanisms which contribute to tight skin (TSK) syndrome in mice, bearing similarities to scleroderma. His work resulted in the identification of the genetic mechanisms underlying this autoimmune disease in humans. He was also extremely interested in other autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes. This passion and focus resulted in substantial progress during the 90s, manifested through the design and evaluation of a new generation of chimeric recombinant proteins, comprising major histocompatibility molecules and disease associated epitopes, able to turn off autoimmune reactions or deploy regulatory T cells.
Dr. Bona's medical training had a major impact on the focus and meaning of his research. His work, of translational value, resulted in novel concepts and methods to modulate autoimmune reactions, neonatal vaccination and gene-based immunotherapy. Some of this work led to technologies and intellectual property licensed by pharmaceutical companies for the purpose of drug development. His translational interest was also reflected in his appointment to various scientific advisory boards for commercial entities.
Among his closest collaborators, mentors and friends are illustrious and accomplished scholars such as William Paul, Jacques Oudin, Ralph Steinman, Tasuku Honjo, Henry Kunkel, Peter Palese, Frederick Alt, Michael Sela and many others. His late wife and life partner, Alexandra Dimitriu-Bona, M.D., Ph.D., also worked in science and served as Director of the Laboratory of Clinical Immunopathology at Mount Sinai.
Above all, Dr. Bona will be remembered by the many grateful students and postdoctoral fellows he mentored, and by the Editorial team of International Reviews of Immunology, who shared his vision and love for science over the years. Dr. Bona showed continuously a deep love for his adoptive country, as well as his native country of Romania: he took each and every opportunity to help, mentor, guide, coach Romanian students and young scientists drawn towards the science of immunology.
We extend our deepest sympathy to his daughter, Monique Bona, Esq., her family, as well as to all close to him. Dr. Bona leaves behind a strong legacy, researchers and physicians, opinion leaders in their field.