Pasteur Institute - History

History

The Institut Pasteur was founded in 1887 by Louis Pasteur, the French scientist whose early experiments with fermentation led to pioneering research in bacteriology. A giant in science, Pasteur discovered the principle of sterilization which came to be known as "pasteurization." His discoveries led to the universal practice of surgical antisepsis. He also developed techniques of vaccination to control bacterial infection, as well as a successful vaccine to treat rabies.

Louis Pasteur was committed both to basic research and its practical applications. As soon as his institute was created, Pasteur brought together scientists with various specialties. The first five departments were directed by two normaliens (graduates of the École Normale Supérieure): Emile Duclaux (general microbiology research) and Charles Chamberland (microbe research applied to hygiene), as well as a biologist, Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov (morphological microbe research) and two physicians, Jacques-Joseph Grancher (rabies) and Emile Roux (technical microbe research). One year after the inauguration of the Institut Pasteur, Roux set up the first course of microbiology ever taught in the world, then entitled Cours de Microbie Technique (Course of microbe research techniques).

Pasteur's successors have sustained this tradition, and it is reflected in the Institut Pasteur's unique history of accomplishment:

• Emile Roux and Alexandre Yersin discovered the mechanism of action of Corynebacterium diphtheriae and how to treat diphtheria with antitoxins;
• Alexandre Yersin discovered in 1894 the pathogen of bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis;
• Paul-Louis Simond discovered in 1898 the role of the flea in the transmission of plague;
• Albert Calmette and Camille Guérin discovered how to culture the tuberculosis bacillus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis (so called BCG or Bacillus Calmette-Guérin) at Institut Pasteur de Lille and developed in 1921 the first effective antituberculosis vaccine;
• Alphonse Laveran got the 1907 Nobel Prize for his research on the role of protozoans as disease agents (notably, his discovery of the malaria hematozoon)
• Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov received the Nobel Prize in 1908 for contributions to scientific understanding of the immune system
• Constantin Levaditi and Karl Landsteiner demonstrated in 1910 that poliomyelitis is due to a filterable virus;
• Félix d'Herelle discovered in 1917 the bacteriophage, a virus that spread only inside bacteria;
• Jules Bordet received the Nobel prize in 1919 for his discoveries on immunity, especially the implication of antibodies and the mechanisms of action of the complement;
• Charles Nicolle received the Nobel prize in 1928 for unraveling the mystery of how typhus is transmitted, especially the role of the louse;
• Jean Laigret developed in 1932 the first vaccine for yellow fever;
• André Lwoff established in 1951 the existence of proviruses
• Pierre Lépine developed in 1954 one of the first antipolio vaccines
• Jean-Pierre Changeux isolated in 1970 the first receptor to a neurotransmitter, the acetylcholine receptor.
• Luc Montagnier, Françoise Barré-Sinoussi and colleagues discovered the two HIV viruses that cause AIDS, in 1983 and 1985, was honored by the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

The biggest mistake by the Institute was ignoring a dissertation by Ernest Duchesne on the use of Penicillium glaucum to cure infections in 1897. The early exploitation of his discovery might have saved millions of lives, especially in World War I.

A new age of preventive medicine in France was made possible by such developments from the Pasteur Institute as vaccines for tuberculosis, diphtheria, tetanus, yellow fever, poliomyelitis, and hepatitis B. The discovery and use of sulfonamides in treating infections was another breakthrough. Some researchers won fame by discovering antitoxins and Daniel Bovet received the 1957 Nobel Prize for his discoveries on synthetic anti-histamines and curarizing compounds.

Since World War II, Pasteur researchers have sharply focused on molecular biology. Their achievements were recognized in 1965, when the Nobel Prize was shared by François Jacob, Jacques Monod and André Lwoff for their work on the regulation of viruses. In 1985, the first human vaccine obtained by genetic engineering from animal cells, the vaccine against hepatitis B, was developed by Pierre Tiollais and collaborators.