Histocompatibility genes of the mouse.

Snell made fundamental contributions to transplantation genetics. At his suggestion genes governing transplantation were called histocompatibility genes and Gorer’s Antigen II became Histocompatibility-2 (H-2).

In 1980 Snell shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with B. Benacerraf and J. Dausset "for their discoveries concerning genetically determined structures on the cell surface that regulate immunological reactions."