To Rodney E. Rohde, Texas State University
Some of the greatest scientific discoveries have not resulted in Nobel Prizes.
Louis PasteurLiving from 1822 to 1895, he is arguably the world’s most famous microbiologist. He, Bacterial theory of disease and – named after him – for inventing the process of pasteurization for preserving food.Surprisingly, he also developed rabies When anthrax made great contributions to vaccines and fight against cholera.
However, he died in 1895, six years before the first Nobel Prize was awarded, but the award is not on his resume. Had he lived in the age of the Nobel Prize, his work would certainly have been worthy of it. The Nobel Prize is awarded in various fields, including physiology and medicinenot given after death.
As the threat of emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases continues, COVID-19 (new coronavirus infectious disease) and polio monkeypox When rabies, looking back on Pasteur’s legacy is awe-inspiring. His work has fundamentally changed how people view infectious diseases and how vaccines fight them.
i have worked Public Health and Medical Institute While specializing in viruses and other microorganisms, Training future medical laboratory scientistsMy Career Started in Virology From front row seats to rabies detection and monitoring And it draws heavily on Pasteur’s pioneering work in microbiology, immunology, and vaccinology.
First a chemist
In my assessment, Pasteur’s greatest contribution to science is his remarkable work in the fields of medical microbiology and immunology. But his story begins with chemistry.
learned from Pasteur French chemist Jean-Baptiste-André DumasDuring that time, Pasteur became interested in the origin of life and worked in the field of science. Polarization and crystallography.
In 1848, just a few months after receiving his doctorate, Pasteur was studying the properties of crystals formed during the winemaking process when he discovered: Crystals occur in the form of mirror images, a property known as chirality. This discovery became the basis for a subfield of chemistry known as Stereochemistry, is the study of the spatial arrangement of atoms within a molecule. The chirality, or handedness, of this molecule isrevolutionary hypothesis” at the time.
These findings made Pasteur doubt what would later be proved through molecular biology. All life processes ultimately result from the correct arrangement of atoms within biomolecules.
Wine and Beer – From Fermentation to Germ Theory
it was beer and wine Important for the French economy and Italy in the 1800s. It was not uncommon in Pasteur’s life for products to spoil, become bitter, or become unsafe to drink. At the time, the scientific concept of “spontaneous generation” held that life could arise from non-living things that were believed to be the culprits behind wine spoilage.
While many scientists attempted to disprove the theory of spontaneous generation, in 1745 British biologists John Tarber Bill Needham He believed he had created the perfect experiment in favor of spontaneous generation. Most scientists believed that heat killed life, so Needham created an experiment to show that microbes could grow on food even after it was boiled. I put it in, heated it up, sealed it up and waited.I didn’t realize that the air might be back in the flask before I sealed it up.
However, his experiment It had two major flawsOne was that the boiling time was not long enough to kill all microbes. And importantly, his flask backed up air, allowing for microbial contamination.
To settle the scientific battle, the French Academy of Sciences has sponsored a contest of the best experiments prove or disprove spontaneous occurrencePasteur’s reaction to the contest was a series of experiments. Award-winning 1861 essay.
Pasteur considered one of these experiments to be “impregnable and conclusive”. Because, unlike Needham, after sterilizing the cultures, they kept them free from contamination. By using his now-famous swan neck flask with his long S-shaped neck, he allowed air to flow in while also preventing falling particles from reaching the broth during heating. prevented. As a result, the flask remained non-growing for an extended period of time. This indicated that without direct aeration in the boiled infusion, “no viable micro-organisms emerge even after months of observation.” Importantly, however, live microorganisms emerged when the dust was introduced.
In the process, Pasteur not only disproved the theory of spontaneous generation, but also proved that microorganisms are everywhere. When he showed that food and wine spoiled not by natural occurrence but by contamination with invisible bacteria, The modern germ theory was born.
Origins of vaccination in the 1800s
In the 1860s, when the silk industry was ravaged by two diseases, to infect silkwormsPasteur developed a sophisticated process Observing silkworm eggs under a microscope and preserving healthy silkworms. Much like his efforts with his wine, he was able to apply his observations to industry methods. French hero.
flat unwell From a severe stroke that left him partially paralyzed, Pasteur continued to work. In 1878 he successfully identified and cultured the bacterium. Caused bird disease poultry choleraHe realized that old bacterial cultures were no longer harmful and that chickens vaccinated with old cultures could survive exposure to wild strains of the bacteria. His observation that he excreted bacteria helped establish an important concept all too familiar in the era of COVID-19.
After avian cholera, Pasteur turned to its prevention anthraxa widespread plague of cattle and other animals caused by bacteria anthraxBuilding on his own work and that of German doctors Robert KochPasteur developed the concept of Attenuated or weakened version of the microorganism use for vaccines.
In the late 1880s, he demonstrated beyond doubt that exposing cattle to an attenuated anthrax vaccine provided the now-well-known immunity and dramatically reduced cattle mortality. .
Leap Forward in Rabies Vaccine
In my professional assessment of Louis Pasteur, the discovery of a vaccine against rabies is the most important of all his achievements.
Rabies isThe world’s deadliest virusspreads from animals to humans via bite.
Handling the rabies virus is extremely dangerous. Mortality approaches 100% If symptoms appear, without vaccination. Through keen observation, Pasteur discovered that drying the spinal cords of rabbits and monkeys that had died of rabies weakened the rabies virus. By gradually exposing dogs to the rabies virus using an attenuated version of it as a vaccine, Pasteur showed that dogs could be effectively immunized against rabies.
Then, in July 1885, Joseph Meister, a 9-year-old boy from France, was severely bitten by a rabid dog. With Joseph facing near certain death, his mother took him to Paris to see Pasteur. she was listening that he worked to develop a cure for rabies;
Pasteur took charge of the case and, together with two doctors, gave the boy a series of injections over several weeks. Joseph survived and Pasteur shocked the world with his cure for a globally deadly disease. Dramatic reduction in human and animal rabies deaths.
A life worthy of a Nobel Prize
The once famous Pasteur said at a lecture“In the field of observation, chance favors only the prepared mind.”
Pasteur had a knack for applying his brilliant and well-prepared scientific mind to the most real dilemmas facing mankind.
Louis Pasteur died before the Nobel Prize began, but his remarkable life of discoveries and contributions in medicine, infectious diseases, vaccination, medical microbiology and immunology made him one of the greatest scientists of all time. I claim there is.
Rodney E. RohdeRegents Professor of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Texas State University
This article is reprinted from conversation Under Creative Commons License.read Original work.
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