Jules Bordet - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet (13 June 1870 – 6 April 1961) was a Belgian

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

immunologist and microbiologist

Microbiologist

A microbiologist is a scientist who works in the field of microbiology. Microbiologists study organisms called microbes. Microbes can take the form of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and protists...

. The bacterial genus

Genus

In biology, a genus is a low-level taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms, which is an example of definition by genus and differentia...

Bordetella
Bordetella
Bordetella is a genus of small , Gram-negative coccobacilli of the phylum proteobacteria. Bordetella species, with the exception of B. petrii, are obligate aerobes as well as highly fastidious, or difficult to culture. Three species are human pathogens ; one of these Bordetella is a genus of small...

is named after him.

Biography

Bordet was born at Soignies

Soignies

Soignies is a Walloon municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut.The municipality is composed of the Town of Soignies together with the villages of Casteau, Chaussée-Notre-Dame-Louvignies, Horrues, Neufvilles, Naast and Thieusies...

, Belgium

Belgium

. He graduated in the year 1892 as Doctor of Medicine at the Université Libre de Bruxelles

Université Libre de Bruxelles

The Université libre de Bruxelles is a French-speaking university in Brussels, Belgium. It has 21,000 students, 29% of whom come from abroad, and an equally cosmopolitan staff.-Name:...

(Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, Belgium

Belgium

) and began his work at the Pasteur Institute

Pasteur Institute

The Pasteur Institute is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who made some of the greatest breakthroughs in modern medicine at the time, including pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax...

in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

in 1894, where, in the laboratory of Elie Metchnikoff, he described phagocytosis of bacteria by white blood cell

White blood cell

White blood cells, or leukocytes , are cells of the immune system involved in defending the body against both infectious disease and foreign materials. Five different and diverse types of leukocytes exist, but they are all produced and derived from a multipotent cell in the bone marrow known as a...

s. In 1898 he described hemolysis

Hemolysis

Hemolysis —from the Greek meaning "blood" and meaning a "loosing", "setting free" or "releasing"—is the rupturing of erythrocytes and the release of their contents into surrounding fluid...

evoked by exposure of blood serum to foreign blood cells.

In 1900, he left Paris to found the Pasteur Institute in Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, and made his discovery that the bacteriolytic effect of acquired specific antibody

Antibody

An antibody, also known as an immunoglobulin, is a large Y-shaped protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralize foreign objects such as bacteria and viruses. The antibody recognizes a unique part of the foreign target, termed an antigen...

is significantly enhanced in vivo by the presence of innate serum components which he termed alexine (but which are now known as complement

Complement system

The complement system helps or “complements” the ability of antibodies and phagocytic cells to clear pathogens from an organism. It is part of the immune system called the innate immune system that is not adaptable and does not change over the course of an individual's lifetime...

). This mechanism became the basis for complement-fixation testing methods that enabled the development of serological tests for syphilis

Syphilis

Syphilis is a sexually transmitted infection caused by the spirochete bacterium Treponema pallidum subspecies pallidum. The primary route of transmission is through sexual contact; however, it may also be transmitted from mother to fetus during pregnancy or at birth, resulting in congenital syphilis...

(specifically, the development of the Wassermann test
Wassermann test
The Wassermann test or Wassermann reaction is an antibody test for syphilis, named after the bacteriologist August Paul von Wassermann, based on complement-fixation.-Method:...

by August von Wassermann). The same technique is used today in serologic testing for countless other diseases.

With Octave Gengou

Octave Gengou

Octave Gengou was a Belgian bacteriologist. He researched with Jules Bordet the Bordetella pertussis bacteria.- Biography :...

he isolated Bordetella pertussis
Bordetella pertussis
Bordetella pertussis is a Gram-negative, aerobic coccobacillus of the genus Bordetella, and the causative agent of pertussis or whooping cough. Unlike B. bronchiseptica, B. pertussis is non-motile. Its virulence factors include pertussis toxin, filamentous hæmagglutinin, pertactin, fimbria, and...

in pure culture in 1906 and posited it as the cause of whooping cough

Pertussis

Pertussis, also known as whooping cough , is a highly contagious bacterial disease caused by Bordetella pertussis. Symptoms are initially mild, and then develop into severe coughing fits, which produce the namesake high-pitched "whoop" sound in infected babies and children when they inhale air...

. He became Professor of Bacteriology

Bacteriology

Bacteriology is the study of bacteria. This subdivision of microbiology involves the identification, classification, and characterization of bacterial species...

at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1907.

In March 1916 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society and in 1930 delivered their Croonian Lecture

Croonian Lecture

The Croonian Lectures are prestigious lectureships given at the invitation of the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians.Among the papers of William Croone at his death in 1684, was a plan to endow one lectureship at both the Royal Society and the Royal College of Physicians...

. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine administered by the Nobel Foundation, is awarded once a year for outstanding discoveries in the field of life science and medicine. It is one of five Nobel Prizes established in 1895 by Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, in his will...

was awarded to him in 1919 for his discoveries relating to immunity.

Bordet died in 1961 and was interred in the Ixelles Cemetery

Ixelles Cemetery

The Ixelles Cemetery , located in Ixelles in the southern part of Brussels, is one of the major cemeteries in Belgium....

in Brussels. He was a freemason and member of the lodge Les Amis Philanthropes of the Grand Orient of Belgium

Grand Orient of Belgium

The Grand Orient of Belgium The Grand Orient of Belgium The Grand Orient of Belgium (French: Grand Orient de Belgique, Dutch: Grootoosten van Belgie (G.O.B.) is a Belgian cupola of masonic lodges which is only accessible for men, and works in the basic three symbolic degrees of freemasonry.-History:...

in Brussels.

External links

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