The most honorable award. Nobel Prize Nobel laureates: Paul Ehrlich The most important discoveries

Literature
Rudolf Aiken. Nobel Prize on literature, 1908
Rudolf Aiken was awarded the prize for his serious search for truth, the all-penetrating power of thought, broad outlook, liveliness and persuasiveness with which he defended and developed idealistic philosophy. Professor Aiken wrote serious studies in various branches of philosophy and was a champion of true spirituality, not of superficial morality, but of a life full of nobility and dignity.

Physiology and medicine
Ilya Mechnikov. Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, 1908
Russian scientist Ilya Mechnikov was awarded a prize for his work on immunity. M.’s most important contribution to science was of a methodological nature: the scientist’s goal was to study “immunity in infectious diseases from the standpoint of cellular physiology.” Mechnikov's name is associated with a popular commercial method of making kefir.

Medicine
Paul Ehrlich. Nobel Prize in Medicine, 1908
German pharmacologist and immunologist. In 1908, Ehrlich, together with Ilya Mechnikov, was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for his work on the theory of immunity.” In his Nobel lecture, E. expressed confidence that scientists had begun to “understand the mechanism of action of therapeutic substances....” “I also hope,” he further noted, “that if these directions are systematically developed, it will soon become easier for us than before to develop rational routes for the synthesis of drugs.”

World
Claes Arnoldson. Nobel Peace Prize, 1908
Claes Arnoldson was awarded a prize for his participation in resolving the Norwegian conflict. Journalist Arnoldson was one of the most popular speakers in the early days of the European peace movement. He devoted all his strength to the struggle for individual rights and democracy, trying to ensure religious tolerance through legislation and moderate militarism.

World
Frederick Bayer. Nobel Peace Prize, 1908
Danish pacifist. in 1908 he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize "for the creation of the Scandinavian Inter-Parliamentary Union to strengthen regional cooperation." Emphasizing the meaning international law to resolve disputes, he noted: “Sometimes one hears that treaties lose all meaning with the outbreak of war... This is a militaristic view with which a pacifist cannot tolerate. We must do everything possible to ensure that the idea of ​​law prevails.”

Chemistry
Ernest Rutherford. Nobel Prize in Chemistry, 1908
Ernest Rutherford received the prize for his research into the decay of elements in the chemistry of radioactive substances. The discoveries led to a startling conclusion: chemical element capable of transforming into other elements. Rutherford suggested new model atom, generally accepted today. This model is like tiny solar system and implies that atoms are composed primarily of empty space.

Physics
Gabriel Lippman. Nobel Prize in Physics, 1908
French physicist. “For the creation of a method for photographic reproduction of colors based on the phenomenon of interference,” L. was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1908. Mentioning the “key position occupied by the photographic reproduction of various objects in modern life", K.B. Hasselberg of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said at the award ceremony that "L.'s color photography method marks a new step forward... in the art of photography."

Price Realized: $59

Lot description: METCHNIKOFF, ELIE. 1845-1916. L'Immunite dans les Maladies Infectieuses. Paris: Masson & Cie, 1901. ix, 601 pp. Illustrated with 45 color figures throughout the text. 8vo (240x155 mm). Contemporary quarter black Morocco over blue Turkish marbled paper boards, gilt lettered and decorated spine. Ownership stamp to title-page, somewhat toned, otherwise internally clean, covers with some wear to extremities and a few stray marks, otherwise an excellent copy. First edition of Elie Metchnikoff’s most important work, in which he explains his theory on lactic-acid bacteria, for which this Russian zoologist and microbiologist received (with Paul Ehrlich) the 1908 Nobel Prize for Medicine. Garrison & Morton, 2555. PMM 402(mentioned)

Treatment: $59 (RUB 4,409). Bonhams auction. Fine Books and Manuscripts. February 18, 2007. Los Angeles. Lot No. 111.

Metchnikoff E. L "immunite dans les Maladies Infectieues.Paris, Masson & C-ie, editeurs Libraires de L'Academie de medecine, 1901. IX, 600, . 45 color illustrations in the text. In a soft-copy binding of the era with embossing on the spine. 24x17 cm. First edition of the famous work Russian scientist in French. All over the world, book collectors of priority editions value this particular edition, but it is better to have in the collection the edition in Russian, which was published two years later.

“Immunity in infectious diseases” by Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov, professor at the Pasteur Institute. Translation of the essay “L"immunite dans les Maladies Infectieues” into Russian, edited by the author. With 45 colored drawings in the text. St. Petersburg, published by K.L. Ricker, 1903. IV, 604, VII. With color ill. The first edition of the main work of I.I. Mechnikov (1845-1916) in Russian, for which he received the Nobel Prize in 1908.

Mechnikov,Ilya Ilya h (French Elie Metchnikoff; 1845, p. Ivanovka, Kharkov province - 1916, Paris) - Russian and French biologist (microbiologist, cytologist, embryologist, immunologist, physiologist and pathologist). Laureate Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1908 ). One of the founders of evolutionary embryology , discoverer phagocytosis and intracellular digestion, the creator of the comparative pathology of inflammation, phagocytic theory of immunity, phagocytella theory, founder of scientific gerontology.Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov was born on his father’s estate Ivanovka, Kupyansky district, Kharkov province, in the family of a guards officer, landowner Ilya Ivanovich Mechnikov (1810-1878) and Emilia Lvovna Mechnikova (nee Nevakhovich, 1814-1879). The parents were introduced by Emilia Lvovna’s brother, a colleague of Ilya Ivanovich. On his father's side, Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov came from an ancient Moldavian boyar family . Mother - Emilia Lvovna Nevakhovich, native Warsaw - daughter of a famous Jewish publicist and educator Leib Noyekhovich (Lev Nikolaevich) Nevakhovich(1776-1831), considered the founder of the so-called Russian-Jewish literature (his book “The Cry of the Daughter” is especially famous Jewish ", St. Petersburg, 1803). Emilia Nevakhovich's brothers:Mikhail Lvovich Nevakhovich(1817-1850) - cartoonist, publisher of the first humorous collection in Russia “ Yeralash" (St. Petersburg, 1846-1849); Alexander Lvovich Nevakhovich(d. 1880) - playwright, head of the repertory department of the Imperial Theaters in 1837-1856. Ivan Ilyich Mechnikov was friends with both of his wife’s brothers.Elder brother I.I. Mechnikov -Lev Ilyich Mechnikov- Swiss geographer and sociologist, anarchist , participant in the national liberation movement in Italy (risorgimento ). Another older brother, Ivan Ilyich Mechnikov (1836-1881), served as prosecutor of the Tula District Court, chairman of the Kyiv Court Chamber and became the prototype of the hero of the story L.N. Tolstoy " Death of Ivan Ilyich"(1886).Having gone bankrupt, Ilya Ivanovich Mechnikov was forced to leave St. Petersburg and settle on his own estate in Ivanovka, where in 1843 his son Nikolai was born, andtwo years later Ilya. Soon after the birth of I.I. Mechnikov's family moved to a more spacious house at the other end of his father's estate inPanasovka (the same Kupyansky district), where the future scientist spent his childhood.Nikolai Mechnikov became provincial secretary for his participation in the student riots of 1868-1869 inKharkov Universitywas placed under strict police supervision.In addition to four sons, the Mechnikov family also had a daughter, Ekaterina (1834).Niece I.I. Mechnikova (sister's daughter) - opera singer Maria Kuznetsova.

Scientific activity of I.I. Mechnikov started very early. In 1864, at the age of nineteen, having graduated from Kharkov University and already having several printed works, he immediately went abroad, where he stayed for three years. There he met representatives of foreign science and worked in the laboratories of the largest scientists in the West. There he met with his famous compatriots M.A. Bakunin, A.I. Herzen, I.M. Sechenov and A.O. Kovalevsky. During these years he made a number of significant discoveries in the field of zoology and embryology and determined both the range of his main topics and the main directions of his scientific activity. 1865 is the year of meeting of I.I. Mechnikov with A.O. Kovalevsky in Naples - was that stage in his life that determined, perhaps, his entire future fate as a scientist. It was here, already sufficiently familiar with Darwinian teachings from his student years, that he was under the direct influence of A.O. Kovalevsky subordinated all his work to a single idea - the proof of evolution. Main topics I.I. Mechnikov during this period of his scientific activity relate to the embryonic development of various representatives of invertebrate animals. Together with A.O. Kovalevsky, with whom I.I. Mechnikov established the closest, friendly relations; he became the founder of a special branch of biology - comparative embryology, which has played and continues to play an outstanding role in the development evolutionary doctrine. In Italy I.I. Mechnikov also met and became close friends with his other great compatriot I.M. Sechenov.By the time he returned to Russia in 1867, I.I. Mechnikov, still a very young scientist, managed to do a lot. Having studied the development of cephalopods, he for the first time absolutely accurately established in invertebrates the presence in the embryonic development of three germ layers, well known and studied in vertebrates. This provided evidence of the unity of development of vertebrate and invertebrate animals. The work on the development of cephalopods was his master's thesis, which he defended at St. Petersburg University.In addition to this, I.I. Mechnikov conducted a number of studies covering the development of insects. Studying eyelash worms- a planarian, he made his first observation of intracellular digestion. Together with A.O. Kovalevsky in 1867 he received the Karl Baer Prize of the first degree, awarded for outstanding work in embryology. In the same year he was chosen as an associate professor at Odessa University. But already in 1868, after successful performances At the congress of naturalists and doctors in St. Petersburg, he became an associate professor at St. Petersburg University and in the same year defended his doctoral dissertation on the development of one of the representatives of crustaceans.In the period from 1868 to 1870 I.I. Mechnikov, with short breaks, again worked abroad, mainly in Naples and Messina, studying the development of sponges, coelenterates, echinoderms, ascidians, and insects. He made a number of significant discoveries and established many important generalizations about the unity of origin of various systematic groups of animals.In 1870 I.I. Mechnikov was elected professor at Odessa University and held this position until 1882. This period of I.I.’s life. Mechnikov is full of the most intense work and deep experiences of both a personal and social nature. He had a hard time with the death of his first wife, who died in 1873. It cost the progressive scientist a lot of energy and strength to fight the reactionary professors and authorities of Odessa University, especially in recent years. After rejecting one of the demands of the progressive group of professors I.I. Mechnikov submitted his resignation and left the university.Despite, however, the extremely unfavorable situation in Odessa, I.I. Mechnikov managed to do many remarkable things during these years. scientific discoveries, conclusions and generalizations. Continuing his research in the field of comparative embryology, he made general conclusions and, in particular, expressed his theory of “parenchymella,” which is a significant stage in the development of the doctrine of the origin of multicellular animals. According to this theory, multicellular animals descend from an extinct ancestor - a creature whose structure had only two parts: a layer of outer cells and an inner part, consisting of a continuous mass of cells capable of capturing and digesting food particles - “parenchyma”. Such a hypothetical animal I.I. Mechnikov called it "parenchymella", and later - "phagocytella".His theory of parenchymella I.I. Mechnikov contrasted the well-known “theory of gastrea” by E. Haeckel, according to which the hypothetical “gastrea” was recognized as the primitive, initial form for multicellular animals - a creature built from two layers of cells and possessing a gastrointestinal, gastric cavity.Having established a more primitive form in the embryonic development of some invertebrates, I.I. Mechnikov concluded that the original ancestor of multicellular animals must have been more primitively organized than Haeckel's Gastrea. Confirmation of his theory I.I. Mechnikov saw in the animal he discovered from the group of worms - planarians, which in place of the intestinal cavity had a solid mass of cells that digested food, as well as in a special flagellated colonial animal, discovered later by S. Kent, which in many structural features coincided with the hypothetical phagocytella.For that period of development of evolutionary teaching, when in order to prove the correctness of its main provisions it was necessary to establish genealogical (kinship) connections of organic forms, the theory of phagocytella was of outstanding importance. In addition, she had a great influence on the modern solution to the question of the origin of multicellular animals.During the same period of his work, I.I. Mechnikov paid special attention to the development of the problem of intracellular digestion and, in connection with this, created a special branch modern biology- experimental morphology, the founder of which, along with A.O. Kovalevsky, by all accounts, he is. In those same years, I.I. Mechnikov discovered intracellular digestion in free, mobile connective tissue cells - the so-called amoebocytes - of invertebrates. Observing this is the firsta link in that chain of observations and thoughts that led him to the creation of the doctrine of phagocytosis and the foundations of the doctrine of the protective properties of blood.In the fall of 1882 I.I. Mechnikov went to Italy and worked in Messina. This autumn and spring of 1883 were a significant stage in his scientific life. Studying the larvae of starfish and their specially mobile free cells - amoebocytes, endowed with the ability to digest organic particles they ingest, I.I. Mechnikov thought about what role these cells could play in the body, besides participating in digestion processes. The idea occurred to him that the significance of these cells may lie in their protective role as elements that are capable of capturing, digesting and thereby neutralizing foreign bodies that are harmful to the body.The experiments of I.I., brilliant in their simplicity and convincingness. Mechnikov managed to confirm his assumption. Foreign bodies artificially introduced into the body of the larvae were captured or enveloped by the amoebocytes that collected around them and ultimately ended up either digested by them or isolated. Based on the ability of motile cells to absorb ("devour") foreign particles, I.I. Mechnikov called them phagocytes. This term has become, as we know, as popular and generally accepted as such well-known concepts as cell, tissue, etc.These experiments turned out to be a turning point in the work of I.I. Mechnikov. Here's what he himself wrote about it:

“In Messina there was a turning point in my scientific life. Before that, I was a zoologist - I immediately became a pathologist. I found myself on a new path, which became the main content of my subsequent activities.”

In a whole series of works of the subsequent period, I.I. Mechnikov showed that phenomena quite similar to those that he observed in his experiments on starfish larvae exist in all types of animals that have mesodermal tissues, that is, tissues developing from the intermediate germ layer - the mesoderm. In complexly organized animals, these tissues include primarily blood and the so-called connective tissue, which contain cellular elements capable of phagocytosis and digesting captured organic particles. In higher animals, for example in all vertebrates, the most typical phagocytes are white blood cells - leukocytes. They are the main “protective” cells in these animals, with the help of which the body isolates and neutralizes foreign bodies that penetrate into it, including pathogenic microbes that cause infectious diseases.The first contours of his teaching about the protective factors of the body I.I. Mechnikov outlined it in a report at a congress of naturalists and doctors in Odessa in 1883. This report, “On the healing powers of the body,” is a significant milestone, marking the appearance of one of the remarkable achievements of science in the treasury of human knowledge.Since 1883, I.I. Mechnikov devoted almost all his attention to the doctrine of phagocytosis and turned to a detailed and comprehensive study of inflammatory processes, infectious diseases and their causative agents - pathogenic microbes. In these studies, which amounted to a whole series of classic works, I.I. Mechnikov remained faithful to evolutionary principles and the comparative method. To confirm his conclusions, he drew on data gleaned from studying infections in various representatives of the animal world - from protozoa to higher vertebrates. Thus, with the consistent progress of research by I.I. Mechnikov prepared a new branch of biology and medicine - comparative pathology.Simultaneously with the work on the substantiation and development of the phagocytic theory, I. I. Mechnikov did not abandon his previous topics on the embryology of invertebrates. Taking advantage of his two-time stay abroad by the sea, in 1884 and 1885 he continued research into the development of echinoderms and jellyfish. These studies, in which I. I. Mechnikov finally formulated his theory of phagocytella, provided material for a number of articles and monographs on the development of jellyfish, which are generally recognized as classic works in the field of comparative and evolutionary embryology.In 1886, I. I. Mechnikov became the head of the first Odessa bacteriological station in Russia. But the station’s activities could not be developed properly due to obstacles caused by inert and sometimes hostile tsarist officials. Desperate for the possibility of fruitful work in Russia, I. I. Mechnikov decided to leave his homeland and seek refuge abroad.In 1887, he undertook a trip abroad to choose the most suitable place for work. During this trip, he participated in the Vienna International Congress of Hygienists, which brought together the most prominent bacteriologists of that time. Taking advantage of the invitation of Pasteur, who agreed to organize an independent laboratory for I.I. Mechnikov, he moved in the fall of 1888 to Paris, where he worked until his death.The twenty-eight-year Parisian period of I.I. Mechnikov’s life was a period of maturity, general recognition and world fame.The first years of this period were full of heated polemics with opponents of the phagocytic theory, mainly German scientists (Koch, Buchner, Behring, Pfeiffer). The latter contrasted Mechnikov's phagocytic or cellular theory with the so-called humoral theory, which put forward specific chemical substances of body fluids as the main factors in the body's defense reactions.To confirm the correctness of his views, I.I. Mechnikov, already with a whole group of his students and collaborators, studied in all details the phenomena of immunity to infectious diseases and proved that phagocytes play a decisive role in these phenomena. His research includes a wide variety of infectious diseases - typhus, cholera, plague, tuberculosis, tetanus and others - and their causative agents. In the course of this work, I.I. Mechnikov and his school manage to resolve a number of particular issues of bacteriology and epidemiology, which are of the greatest practical importance and underlie modern methods combating infectious diseases.Laboratory I.I. Mechnikov in Paris quickly became the center of advanced medical thought, to which doctors and scientists from all over the world strove. Around I.I. Mechnikov brought together talented employees and students, from whom the greatest bacteriologists and immunologists grew up (P. Roux, Bordet, Russian scientist Bezredka). Quite a few Russian doctors also passed through Mechnikov’s laboratory.In 1891 I.I. Mechnikov was elected an honorary doctor of the University of Cambridge and participated in the London International Congress, where he presented a summary of the results of his research and very successfully debated opponents of his theory.In the same year, at the Pasteur Institute I.I. Mechnikov conducted his remarkable series of lectures on inflammation, published the following year, 1892, as a separate book entitled “Lectures on the Comparative Pathology of Inflammation.” The appearance of this book in Russian and French was one of the remarkable events in the history of biology and medicine. Doctors and scientists all over the world were faced with a harmonious system of views and methods, which were destined to radically rebuild a number of established positions and open the broadest prospects before medical science. The significance of this book is far from being limited to the fact that in it I.I. Mechnikov, based on his own works and critical revision of numerous literary data, created and substantiated a new coherent doctrine of inflammation. Having shed a new light on one of the essential chapters of general pathology - the doctrine of inflammation, I.I. At the same time, Mechnikov created and firmly substantiated a new concept of pathological processes as reactions of the body.In his “Lectures” I.I. Mechnikov showed with exceptional completeness and brilliance how the evolutionary complication of inflammatory processes took place from primitive animals of the Don and more complexly organized ones. The comparative evolutionary method allowed him to reveal in the complex complex of phenomena that characterize inflammation in higher animals and humans in general, its main factors common to all animals, and those additional phenomena that represent, as it were, evolutionary layers that developed as the overall complexity of the organization animals. Thus, fruitfulness comparative method was proven for the first time with complete clarity and exhaustive convincing.All these works by I.I. Mechnikov, as a biologist and pathologist, made enormous changes in the general understanding of painful phenomena and deeply affected the very foundations of general pathology. General theoretical conclusions of I.I. Mechnikov, according to which painful phenomena are not something completely divorced from the so-called “normal” physiological properties and manifestations of the body, created a solid foundation for overcoming the elements of scholasticism and metaphysics in theoretical medicine.In 1894 I.I. Mechnikov participated in the international congress of bacteriologists in Budapest and, armed with the richest material from his new studies of the phenomena of immunity in infectious diseases, again successfully defended his phagocytic theory.Time span between 1894 and 1897 filled with intensive work by I. I. Mechnikov and his entire laboratory, in connection with new discoveries by supporters of the humoral theory in the field of immunology, which seemed to undermine the foundations of the theory of phagocytosis. However, carefully conducted experiments and numerous observations made it possible for I.I. Mechnikov and his collaborators to show that those factors in the phenomena of immunity, which at first glance have nothing in common with phagocytes, still turn out to be somehow connected with their vital activity.In 1897 I.I. Mechnikov made presentations at the congress in Moscow on the plague issue and on the results of his work on phagocytic reactions against microbial poisons - toxins. These studies, devoted to the study of toxins of a wide variety of microbes that cause infectious diseases, the mechanism of their action and the body's reactions in response to this action, were, as it were, the last final series of works that allowed I. I. Mechnikov to summarize his many years of research into immunity. This result was summed up by him in a report at the international congress in Paris in 1900 and in his famous work “Immunity in Infectious Diseases,” published in 1901.This book, which I.I. himself Mechnikov considered it as an inextricable link in the chain of his work in the field of comparative pathology and a direct continuation of the book on inflammation, containing a coherent system of views and ideas that had a huge influence on all subsequent work in the field of immunology and were included as the main component V modern teaching about immunity.Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the attention of I.I. Mechnikov is attracted to the issues of old age and death, the resolution of which he seeks to approach as a biologist and pathologist. In this regard, interest arises in the study of human nature and its specific features as a special creature in the general zoological chain. The result of this interest was a series of works that provided material for the book “Studies on Human Nature.”In works devoted to the causes of aging and possible ways to overcome premature senile senility, I. I. Mechnikov especially puts forward the poisoning of the body by toxins of microbes that are constantly present and developing in the intestines. Studies of the intestinal flora of adults, children and animals led I.I. Mechnikov to the idea that it is quite possible to regulate the intestinal flora with appropriate diets and thus minimize intoxication leading to premature aging.Being a convinced atheist and materialist, I.I. Mechnikov argued with great persuasiveness that the power of progressive knowledge - and first of all medicine - would ultimately allow such a restructuring human life that death will occur only when the “instinct of life” naturally and imperceptibly turns into the “instinct of death.” These optimistic thoughts, developed in the book “Studies of Optimism,” published in 1907, like the entire optimistic worldview so characteristic of I.I. Mechnikov in last third his life, replaced the pessimistic mood that possessed him in his youth.In 1908 I.I. Mechnikov, together with infectious disease specialist and immunologist P. Ehrlich, received the international Nobel Prize. This was the reason for I.I.’s trip. Mechnikov to Sweden (the Nobel Prize was awarded in Stockholm) and to Russia, which he undertook in 1909 and gave him the opportunity to meet his brilliant compatriot, writer L.N. Tolstoy.In 1911 I.I. Mechnikov heads an expedition he organized to study tuberculosis among the population of the Kalmyk steppes. This expedition, which included, in addition to I.I. Mechnikova, a whole series outstanding scientists, collected extremely valuable material and gave I.I. Mechnikov had the opportunity to draw very important conclusions about the natural immunization of the population against tuberculosis.In 1913, a book by I.I. was published. Mechnikov’s “Forty Years of Search for a Rational Worldview,” in which he collected all his works of a general nature, starting with various articles about “disharmonies” in human nature. This entire series of works clearly illustrates his path from the pessimism of his early period to the bright materialistic optimism of his mature age and is an excellent monument to the ideological growth of one of the largest representatives of modern science.In 1915 I.I. Mechnikov fell ill and died on July 15, 1916.

Louis Pasteur - founder of immunology

1887 – report at the French Academy of Sciences

Principles of prevention of infectious diseases by weakened or killed pathogens (chicken cholera)

In Russian chronicles, along with numerous descriptions of illnesses of princes and representatives of the upper class (boyars, clergy), horrific pictures of large epidemics of plague and other infectious diseases, which in Rus' were called “pestilence,” are given. For the period from the XI to the XVIII centuries. the chronicles mention 47 “moras.” They began, as a rule, in border cities - Novgorod, Pskov, Smolensk, through which foreign merchant caravans passed

In 1546 Professor at the University of Padua, J. Fracastro wrote his work “On contagion, contagious diseases and treatment” in three books, in which he significantly shook the previously prevailing ideas about “miasma”.

Joseph Lister (1827-1912)

English doctor, surgeon, founder of the theory of antiseptics. It has been proven that MOs cause suppuration of wounds and come from the external environment with dust, tools, and honey on hands and clothes. personnel. He suggested using carbolic acid.

Paul Ehrlich (1854 – 1915)

A German pharmacologist and immunologist, the first discoveries in the field of chemotherapy, scientifically substantiated and first used drugs for the treatment of syphilis (salvarsan 606 - an arsenic compound).

1908 - Nobel Prize

Sergei Nikolaevich Vinogradsky (1856-1953)

Founder of soil microbiology and the theory of chemosynthesis. He worked in St. Petersburg in the field of microbial ecology, studied microorganisms in the natural environment. Opened the breathing of MO due to the chemical oxidation of inorganic substances: oxidation of ammonia, sulfur, nitrate.

Nikolai Fedorovich Gamaleya (1859-1949)

Creator of bacteriological stations in Russia, rabies vaccination station

Edward Jenner (1749-1823)

English doctor of Gloucestershire, founder vaccinations (cowpox vaccinations to prevent smallpox). The idea of ​​​​vaccinating “cowpox” arose from the young Jenner in a conversation with an elderly milkmaid, whose hands were covered with skin rashes.

1908 – I.I. Mechnikov and Erlich P.

Phagocytic theory of immunity.

Humoral theory of immunity.

Attempts to clarify protection mechanisms.

Nobel Prize for studying the nature of immunity.

I.I. Mechnikov

S. Ivanovka (Kharkov).

1879 – theory of the origin of multicellular organisms.

1882 – phagocytosis.

1883 - phagocytic theory of immunity.

1892 – theory of comparative pathology of inflammation.

Emil Adolf von Behring (1854 - 1917)

Nobel Prize in 1901 for the discovery of the protective properties of antitetanus and antidiphtheria serums.

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (1843 – 1910)

In 1905, Robert Koch was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his “research and discoveries concerning the treatment of tuberculosis.”

Ehrlich, Paul (1854–1915)Respiration processes in tissues.

Different forms of leukocytes.

The role of bone marrow in hematopoiesis.

Mast cells.

Method for staining pathogens of tuberculosis.

Treatment of syphilis with arsenic.

Experimental tumor growth.

Nils Kai Erne (1911, London)

Affinity of AG and AT.

1954 – theory of selective formation of antibodies (applied the theory of natural selection: antibodies seem to undergo selection)

Theory of side chains – Nobel Prize 1984 (the AT itself can be an AG, and antibodies will be produced against it).

Macfarlane BURNET (1899 – 1985), Australian

He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine in Melbourne and defended his dissertation in London.

In Melbourne - vaccination against diphtheria (Staphylococcus) in 1928, the death of 12 children.

Returned to England (chicken embryos) – virology, question: how does an organism distinguish between its own and “not its own”?

The basis of the theory of tolerance (“one’s own – not one’s own”).

1960 – Nobel Prize for clonal selection theory.

Snell, Dosse, Benaceraf

1980 – Nobel Prize for discoveries concerning certain structures on the cell surface that regulate immune functions.

Mechanisms of cell recognition, immune reactions, transplant rejection.

Paul Ehrlich

1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (shared with Ilya Mechnikov). The wording of the Nobel Committee: “For their work on immunity.”

The era of modern medicine can be called the era of pharmacotherapy or chemotherapy, because a more successful method of combating pathogens than a directed (targeted) effect on the pathogen or pathogenesis link has not yet been discovered. And the first person who introduced this concept into medicine, inventing a “magic bullet” for syphilis, was our current hero. However, this is not what he received the award for. He, as befits all scientists of the early 20th century, did different things, achieving success everywhere. It is to him, in addition to the beautiful “point” in the study of blood cells, that the “theory of side chains”, fundamental for immunology, as well as the concept of the blood-brain barrier, belongs.

The scientist did not live a very long, but extremely eventful life. He was born into the family of an innkeeper and inn owner from the small Polish town of Strzelin. Thanks to his cheerful disposition, Ehrlich easily found contact with absolutely different people, and therefore many acquaintances believed that Paul would continue his father’s career. But that was not the case. The boy, whose parents were not at all interested in science, came under the influence of his paternal grandfather, who taught physics and botany at a local university. The young histologist was helped to finally develop his interest in science cousin mother - bacteriologist Karl Weigert, who attracted Paul to the mysterious world of living tissues and aniline dyes, with which he began to work one of the first.

Karl Weigert

Wikimedia Commons

Part of the reason for this was the book that Ehrlich read when he entered the Faculty of Medicine University of Breslau (modern Wroclaw). It talked about how lead is distributed in a special way in different tissues, and the inquisitive mind of the young man immediately became interested in “the nature and methods of distribution of substances in the body and its cells,” which he did not fail to do in his later years of studying medicine.

It is interesting that Ehrlich at universities (and he, in addition to his native one, managed to study at both Starsburg and Leipzig universities) was known as a typical “loser”, just like Newton, Helmholtz, Einstein and many other “geniuses” in their time. . Apparently, they thought the same thing: why waste time on something that is not interesting if you can spend it on more exciting things. Corpses and healing did not appeal to Ehrlich, but the dyes...

During his years of study, Paul developed many new dyes with a specific affinity for various cells, and by the time he received his diploma in 1878, he was already something of a scientist. His unique “vision” of the three-dimensional structure of molecules, which helped him predict the association of dye with certain tissues, allowed him to publish the results of his research on the coloring of blood films in 1879. The researcher was only 25 years old at the time.

Our hero discovered everything necessary for the full existence of hematology in this way: he separated populations of white cells (agranulocytes - cells without granules, and granulocytes - cells containing specific granules in their cytoplasm), not only from each other, but also inside. Thanks to him, we know that there are lymphocytes that do not contain granules (later it turned out that they are divided into B and T and NK cells), and granulocytes, in turn, are divided into several types, among which neutrophils can be found, eosinophils and basophils.

Granulocyte

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Ehrlich was attracted by another detail. In one of the Berlin clinics where he worked, no one bothered him to study various studies, including the color of pathogens. So he came up with the idea of ​​a “magic bullet.” “If there is a dye that colors only tissue, then, undoubtedly, there must be one that will color only microbes that have entered the body,” the scientist thought. And, accordingly, if there is a paint that will only color microbes, then there must be a substance that will only be able to kill them. And perhaps this “killer” could be one of the dyes.

In this capacity as a “virtuoso dyer” and as the chief physician of the Friedrich von Frerichs clinic at the Berlin Charité hospital, Ehrlich met the already famous Robert Koch, who in 1882 discovered the causative agent of tuberculosis. He suggested to Koch an improved method of painting his stick (which, by the way, is still used today), and this began their many years of friendship and close cooperation.

Robert Koch on a stamp commemorating the centenary of his award

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But here’s the problem: in 1888, during another experiment with a dangerous pathogen, Paul himself became infected with the bacillus, and, in addition, infected his family, whom he started in 1883. With his wife Hedwig Pincus and two daughters, he was forced to go to Egypt for treatment, whose hot and dry climate was ideal for getting rid of the pathogen. They lived there for two years.

A holy place is never empty, and as a result of behind-the-scenes intrigues, the absent Ehrlich was removed from his post at the Charite clinic, which he discovered when he returned to Berlin in 1890. Undaunted, he continued his scientific research in his laboratory, which, fortunately, could not be appropriated until Koch offered to help and took him to his Institute of Infectious Diseases. In addition, Ehrlich also became a professor at the University of Berlin.

Charite Clinic

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His “infectious” past brought him together with the discoverer of anti-diphtheria serum, von Behring, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1901. At first, however, vaccination, which was supposed to protect mice from toxins by gradually increasing doses, did not give reliable results. But Ehrlich found ways to increase the effectiveness of the serums: he advised “boosting” it by repeatedly injecting diphtheria toxin into horses until the required concentration of antitoxin was obtained, and then helped Behring set up mass production. At the same time, the scientist began to think about the theory of “side chains”.

Ehrlich and Bering on a postage stamp

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“Living protoplasm must correspond to a giant molecule interacting with ordinary chemical molecules just like the sun with the smallest meteorites. We can assume that in living protoplasm a nucleus with a special structure is responsible for specific functions inherent in the cell, and atoms and their complexes are attached to this nucleus like side chains,” wrote Ehrlich.

This is also where the ideas about specific receptors in cells that are capable of binding to pathogens came from. The researcher continued to “dig deeper” and proposed the first theory in 1897. He believed that these side chains on the outside of cell membranes (which later became called receptors) were able to bind to certain chemicals in the environment. Some of them can combine with toxins that microorganisms release into the environment, and this connection is built like a “lock and key” (the discovery was confirmed by Linus Pauling in the 40s). Having contacted the toxin, the cell begins to transform and freely release “side chains” into the intercellular environment, where they would meet the toxin and neutralize it, protecting other cells and, in general, the entire organism as a whole from “invasion.” Ehrlich even gave these chains a familiar name - Antikörper or antibodies. His theory was remarkably reminiscent of the mechanism of humoral immunity known today, which is based on antibodies produced by B cells.

This unique theory of immunity, by the way, caused a severe dispute between Ehrlich and Mechnikov: the emigrant from Russia believed that all immunity was provided by phagocytosis, and Ehrlich fiercely argued that the main role was assigned to antibodies. In fact, both were right, as it happens. Ehrlich's most important contribution is that he was the first to introduce the interaction between antibodies, pathogens and cells as chemical reactions. In addition, it was he who formed the basis of modern immunological terminology.

Ilya Mechnikov. Nadar Photos

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Apparently, Nobel Committee at the beginning of its existence, one of its tasks was to reconcile irreconcilable rivals. We have already told how in 1906 the ardent opponents Camillo Golgi and Santiago Ramon y Cajal, who were also the founders of modern neuroscience, received the prize. Apparently guided by the same principle, the Nobel Committee gave a prize in 1908 to two founders of modern immunology - Mechnikov and Ehrlich. In general, Ehrlich was nominated only 76 times. It is interesting that there were many nominations after 1908, including one nomination for a prize in chemistry. For what? Read on!

A little later, Paul was called director of State Institute development and control of serums in Steglitz (a suburb of Berlin), which in 1899 expanded to the Institute for Experimental Serotherapy in Frankfurt am Main. Seven years later, Erlich became director here too, and now the institute bears his name - Paul-Ehrlich Institute.

The “magic bullet” still did not leave the researcher’s mind. With his Japanese assistant Sahashiro Hata, he tried more than 500 different dyes, expecting to find an effective remedy against trypanosomes, the causative agent of sleeping sickness. One day, while leafing through another chemical magazine, he came across an interesting drug against sleeping sickness - atoxyl or, from Latin, “non-poisonous”, which, as the authors said, perfectly relieved patients of their illness.

Atoxyl

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After independently studying the drug, scientists came to the conclusion that the name was a lie. Atoxyl, which contained arsenic, had a colossal toxic effect on the optic nerve, “helping” patients recover and taking away their vision. Researchers spent several years before finding a more or less effective and less toxic analogue - arsenophenylglycine.

And when Hoffman determined in 1905 that syphilis is caused by a specific microbe - a pale spirochete, which is very similar in structure to trypanosome, Ehrlich began to look for a “magic bullet” against it. All this led to the creation in 1909 of substance No. 606 from atoxyl (it actually turned out to be the 606th of the tested organoarsenic drugs), which was called arsphenamine or salvarsan. In the first clinical trials conducted at the Magdeburg Hospital, it showed high effectiveness against syphilis. Thus, salvarsan became the first chemotherapy drug in the history of medicine. Ehrlich announced the discovery of a cure for syphilis in 1910, and the drug immediately began its journey around the world: for example, in the same year it was already used in Russia.

Vaccination of the drug "606" to an employee of the Imperial Orphanage. Russian Empire, 1910.

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Finally, I need to write about one more discovery that Ehrlich made while working on salvarsan. This discovery posed a problem for pharmacology that has not yet been solved. Ehrlich injected toxic dyes into laboratory animals. Opening the bodies, he saw that all tissues were stained except the brain. At first, he decided that since the brain is mainly composed of lipids, they simply did not stain. Subsequent experiments showed that if the dye is introduced into the blood, the maximum that it can stain is the so-called choroidal vascular plexus of the ventricles of the brain. Then “the path is closed” to him. If the dye was injected into the cerebrospinal fluid by performing a lumbar puncture, the brain was stained, but the rest of the body was not stained. It became clear that between the blood and the central nervous system there is a certain barrier that many substances cannot overcome. This is how the blood-brain barrier was discovered, which protects our brain from microorganisms and toxins, and has become a headache for neurologists who are trying to treat brain cancer. It is the blood-brain barrier that prevents chemotherapy from reaching tumors in the head. Therefore, scientists are still solving the problems posed by Paul Ehrlich to this day.

Great Jews Mudrova Irina Anatolyevna

Frank Ilya Mikhailovich

Soviet physicist, Nobel Prize laureate 1958

Born on October 23, 1908, into the family of mathematician Mikhail Lyudvigovich Frank and Elizaveta Mikhailovna Frank (ur. Gratsianova), who had recently moved to St. Petersburg from Nizhny Novgorod.

The future physicist came from a famous Moscow Jewish family - his great-grandfather, Moisei Mironovich Rossiysky, became one of the founders of the Jewish community of Moscow in the 60s of the 19th century. Grandfather Ludwig Semyonovich Frank (1844–1882), was a graduate of Moscow University (1872), moved to Moscow from the Vilna province during the Polish uprising of 1863 and participated as a military doctor in Russian-Turkish war 1877–1878, being awarded the Order of Stanislav and nobility. Father's brother (uncle of Ilya Mikhailovich Frank) is a major Russian philosopher Semyon Ludwigovich Frank; another brother is the artist, sculptor, set designer and book illustrator Leon (Lev Vasilyevich) Zak (pseudonym Leon Rossiysky, 1892–1980).

The family lived on the father's modest teaching salary. Only after the revolution did he become a professor. Mother graduated from nursing courses and then from Women's medical school. After the revolution, she worked as a doctor for many years, mainly as a specialist in bone tuberculosis. The boy was sick a lot as a child and did not go to school very regularly. He was interested in biology and willingly studied mathematics on his own, which was facilitated by the help of his father and books. In the 20s, the family lived in Crimea. After graduating from high school, Ilya entered the Faculty of Physics and Mathematics at Moscow State University in 1926. From the second year he began working in the laboratory of S.I. Vavilov, whom he considered his teacher. Under the leadership of Vavilov, Frank completed his first work - on luminescence.

After graduating from Moscow State University in 1930, he worked for several years at the State Optical Institute in Leningrad in the laboratory of A.N. Terenina. Here Frank carried out original research on physical optics and photochemical reactions, for which he was awarded the degree of Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences in 1934.

In 1934, at the suggestion of S.I. Vavilov Frank went to work at the Physics Institute. P.N. Lebedev Academy of Sciences of the USSR (FIAN). Here he worked until 1970 as a senior researcher, head of department, head of laboratory atomic nucleus. From the very beginning, back in 1934, he became interested in the work of P.A. Cherenkov by the glow of pure liquids under the influence of gamma rays, later called the “Cerenkov effect”. Together with S.I. Vavilov took part in the discussion of the progress of these studies. He made a certain contribution to the understanding of the results, especially to the question of the direction of radiation. Together with I.E. Tamm in 1937 explained this new phenomenon as the emission of an electron when moving in a medium at superluminal speed and developed its theory. This discovery led to the creation of a new method for detecting and measuring the speed of high-energy nuclear particles. This method is of great importance in modern experimental nuclear physics. For this work, Frank and others were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1958. In his Nobel lecture, Frank pointed out that the Cherenkov effect “has numerous applications in high-energy particle physics.” “The connection between this phenomenon and other problems has also become clear,” he added, “such as the connection with plasma physics, astrophysics, the problem of generating radio waves and the problem of particle acceleration.”

Academician Vavilov characterized his student on July 2, 1938: “Using his deep knowledge in the field of physical optics, I.M. Frank took part in the work of the Stratospheric Commission of the USSR Academy of Sciences to observe the glow of the night sky, together with N.A. Dobrotin and P.A. Cherenkov. This work led to the discovery of a new effect of sharp variations in the intensity of the night sky glow during the night. Under the leadership of I.M. Frank for the first time on Elbrus managed to observe cosmic rays with a Wilson camera.

In general, I.M. Frank is an exceptional representative of young Soviet physics in his erudition, experimental art, and deep physical intuition.”

In 1940, Frank began lecturing at the department he headed. nuclear physics Moscow state university. This work was interrupted by the war. Since its beginning with Physical Institute the scientist was evacuated to Kazan, where he remained until 1943. At the end of the war and the first post-war years Frank focused on research on reactor physics, carried out in close contact with I.V. Kurchatov. For his work on reactor physics and work on the study of nuclear reactions of the lightest nuclei, also carried out on special orders from the government, he was awarded with orders and the Stalin Prize in 1953.

In 1946, Frank was elected a corresponding member of the USSR Academy of Sciences.

Frank's specialization in the field of neutron physics began with research in reactor physics. One of the fruitful areas of work developed by scientists at FIAN was research in the physics of slow neutrons.

In 1988, the scientist continued work in the field of neutron physics and theoretical research in electrodynamics. In particular, he prepared for publication a monograph summarizing a number of previously obtained results.

Frank had three Orders of Lenin (1952, 1953, 1975), the Order October Revolution(1978), two Orders of the Red Banner of Labor (1948, 1968), the Order of the Badge of Honor (1945), as well as medals, including “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War 1941–1945.” He was a laureate of two Stalin Prizes (1946, 1953) and the USSR State Prize (1971).

“But my gardener is a Nobel Prize laureate.” Before I talk about a very important, dramatic episode in my life, two funny stories about Rostropovich. The second, however, is not only funny. But still, it is very important for maintaining spirit and accumulation