German bacteriology scholar. He became one of the founders of immunology with his studies on the prevention of tetanus and diphtheria with protective serum.
(1854-1917) He was born on March 15, 1854, in Hansdorf, Prussia (in today's DAC). After studying medicine at the University of Berlin, he passed a state examination in 1880 and took a position at the Army Medical Institute. In 1889 he transferred to Koch's Institute of Public Health in Berlin. He was a lecturer at the University of Halle in 1894 and at the University of Marburg in 1895. Behring, who later continued his research in a private laboratory reserved for him in a paint factory in Höchst and received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1901, died of pneumonia on March 31, 1917, in Marburg.
The years when Behring began his research coincided with a period when the view that diseases were caused by microbes became quite certain and studies on immunity were increasingly intensified. Koch's institute, on the other hand, was one of the institutions that carried out the most intensive research in this field. At the same institute, Ehrlich was conducting immunization trials on rabbits, while Behring was researching ways to immunize against tetanus and diphtheria with his Japanese colleague Kitasato. In 1890, he announced the results of these studies to the scientific world in two papers, one with Kitasato.
When a healthy animal is vaccinated with the blood serum of a tetanus-infected animal, it can resist the disease even if it receives a lethal dose of tetanus microbes, and the serum made from that animal's blood can create long-term immunity when inoculated into other healthy animals. In the same way, immunity against diphtheria was provided, and it was possible to cure animals with tetanus or diphtheria with serum. The first human trial was performed on a child with diphtheria on Christmas Eve 1891; Commercial production of the vaccine began in 1892. Kitasato and Behring named the immune-generating substance antitoxin. Antitoxins enabled this result to be achieved by eliminating the effect of toxic substances secreted by bacteria. However, this method was not 100% effective against diphtheria. Continuing his research, Behring prepared a vaccine from a mixture of toxins and antitoxins in 1913. This new substance was much more effective on diphtheria than serum containing only antitoxin. He then produced a vaccine that creates immunity against TB in cows. Thus, Behring initiated a practice that is considered the pioneer of modern vaccination methods. Behring was awarded the first Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1901, especially for his work on diphtheria, which causes infant mortality.
After the contributions of Ehrlich, the diphtheria vaccine was successfully administered to soldiers during World War I. By 1923, diphtheria was no longer a disease to be feared, with a much more potent toxoid (attenuated toxin) prepared by the French bacteriology scholar Gaston Leon Ramon (1886-1963). However, the main importance of Behring's research is that it has brought new concepts and dimensions to immunology and bacteriology, rather than providing a great step forward in the fight against these deadly diseases. After these studies, research on the defense function of white blood cells against bacteria, the role of phagocytosis in the immune mechanism, and the immune system of the organism gained momentum.