Joseph Wybran is the first author of a 1972 study investigating a rosette assay as a marker of human lymphocytes associated with the thymus. In the assay, sheep red blood cells surrounded certain human lymphocytes, producing a recognizable cluster that could be counted.[ref]
The Human Rosette-Forming Cell as a Marker of a Population of Thymus-Derived Cells by Joseph Wybran and others. Original byline and Abstract: rosette formation
The investigators compared blood and developing tissues, finding the highest proportions of rosette-forming cells in the tested thymus samples. They combined those distributions with observations in immune disorders to propose a chiefly thymic origin for the blood population.[ref]
The Human Rosette-Forming Cell as a Marker of a Population of Thymus-Derived Cells by Joseph Wybran and others. Abstract: tissue distribution and stated hypothesis
The important step was connecting a visible binding behaviour to a biological population. Counting clusters is an operational measurement; identifying the cell's origin is an interpretation requiring independent evidence. The historical study supplied evidence for a marker, not a rule that every lymphocyte forms a rosette under every set of assay conditions.
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