Pasteur Institute

Since its founding, the Pasteur Institute has been engaged in fundamental research in the practical field of natural sciences. Louis Pasteur invited to participate in the scientific work of the created institute of scientists of various specialties. The first five areas were headed by scientists of that time: two graduates of the Higher Normal School : Emil Duclos (studies in general microbiology) and (applied research in microbiology and hygiene ), as well as biologist Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov (morphological study of microorganisms ) and two doctors , Jacques-Joseph Grancher ( rabies studies) and Emil Roux (technical studies of microorganisms). Since 1877, Emil was an assistant to Pasteur at the chemical laboratory of the Higher Normal School, where, together with Chamberlain, he studied anthrax . A year after the opening of the Pasteur Institute, Emil Roux created the Cours de Microbie Technique (a course of methods for the study of microbes) - the first course of microbiology , which students around the world study as a science. The scientific work of Ru, which he carried out partly alone, partly in collaboration and collaboration with Mechnikov , Chamberlain, Yersen and others, relates mainly to rabies , diphtheria and tetanus . Roux was best known for publishing his studies, Contributions à l'etude de la diphthérie (in Annales de l'Institut Pasteur, 1888, 1889 and 1890), in which he shed light on the etiology of diphtheria. He proved that all general clinical manifestations of diphtheria (cardiac decline, paralysis, etc.) are caused by a toxic substance ( toxin ) secreted by diphtheria bacillus and that this substance, introduced into the body, causes these phenomena by itself, in the absence of a toxigenic strain in the body Corynebacterium diphtheria .

After the death of Pasteur in 1895, Emil Duclos became director of the institute. His research interests included physics, chemistry, microbiology, meteorology, mathematics, medicine, general hygiene, social hygiene and other fields. He has published over 220 scientific papers. In addition, he wrote one of Pasteur’s best biographies and a comprehensive guide to social hygiene. The Pasteur Institute is one of the world leaders in the study of infectious diseases. The most important discoveries were made here, which led to the successful fight against diseases such as diphtheria , tetanus , tuberculosis , polio , flu , yellow fever and plague . In 1983, HIV was discovered here. Since 1908, 8 scientists of the institute became laureates of the Nobel Prize in medicine and physiology .

The first rabies vaccine was given on July 6, 1885, to 9-year-old Joseph Meister at the request of his mother. The treatment was successful, the boy did not have rabies symptoms. For some time, the scientist did not give permission to establish vaccination anti-rabies stations outside of Paris, as he assumed that due to the long incubation period of the disease, one centralized institution would be enough to vaccinate patients throughout Europe. However, in his Paris laboratory, located in the premises of Ecol Normal, began to come many affected by the disease from all over Europe, including from the Russian Empire ^{[2] [3]} . In this regard, under the control of Pasteur and his employees, Pasteur stations began to open - specialized medical sanitation facilities that deal with rabies according to the Pasteur method . The first time at the opening in Russia and the second in the world (after Paris) was the Odessa Pasteur station, the initiators of the creation of which were I. I. Mechnikov and N. F. Gamaleya ^[4] . In Western Europe, the first Pasteur station outside France was opened in Vienna, Austria in July 1887.

• Pasteur Institute: official site.
• History of the Pasteur Institute
• Mérieux Foundation (Fondation Mérieux)
• Pasteur Institute in Montevideo
• Pasteur Institute in St. Petersburg