Coca, Arthur Fernandez

Arthur Fernandez Coca (¤20.3.1875 - † 11. 12.1959) was an American immunologist known for his research on allergies. Coca was born in Philadelphia, attended Haverford College and received his doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania in 1900. He studied at the University of Heidelberg and was an assistant to Emil von Dungern in the chemical laboratory of the Heidelberg Cancer Institute from 1907 to 1909. Coca worked as a bacteriologist at the Bureau of Science in Manila and was a lecturer in pathology and bacteriology at Cornell University Medical College from 1910 to 1919. From 1924 to 1935 he was Professor of Immunology and Professor of Medicine at the New York Postgraduate Medical School of Columbia University. He was also medical director of the Lederle Laboratories until 1949.

Coca specialized in the research of allergies. He is considered one of the pioneers of allergology. In 1953 he wrote the book Familial Nonreaginic Food-Allergy. Coca and Robert Cooke coined the term atopy in 1923 when they established a link between allergic rhinitis and asthma. Historian of science Arthur M. Silverstein noted that Coca "contributed significantly to the development of allergy as a scientific discipline" and attempted to classify hypersensitivity conditions such as dermatosis, hay fever and serum sickness. Coca and Robert Cooke founded the Society of Asthma and Allied Conditions in 1924. Coca also founded the Allergy Roundtable Discussion Group in New York.

Coca founded the Journal of Immunology and was its editor from 1916 to 1948. He was honorary president of the American Association of Immunologists, a position he held from 1949 until his death.

1. Cohen SG (1985). Firsts in allergy: IV. The contributions of Arthur F. Coca, M.D. (1875-1959). New England and Regional Allergy Proceedings 6: 285-293.
2. Chase Merrill W (1979). Irreverent recollections from Cooke and Coca, 1928-1978. Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology 64: 306-320.
3. Research article (1960). In Memoriam: Arthur F. Coca, Founder of the Journal of Immunology 85: NP-331.