Emil von Behring

Posted by Tel Asiado Mar 15, 2009

This day, March 15, Emil von Behring (1854-1917) is born. He was a German bacteriologist and pioneer immunologist. In 1901 Behring was awarded the first Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his work on serum therapy. He is considered the founder of the science of immunology.

Emil Adolf von Behring was born in Handsorf, Prussia (Germany). He was educated at the University of Berlin and later served with the Army Medical Corps. He also became an assistant at the Robert Koch Institute of Hygiene in Berlin, where he met the Japanese bacteriologist Kitasato Shibasaburo. The two men collaborated and showed it was possible to provide an animal with immunity from tetanus by injecting it with animal serum of another animal already infected by the disease. This is now commonly called antitoxic immunity.

He died on March 31, 1917.