Mouseover the event title for a more detailed description of the event (if available). To search for particular terms in the description of the event enter the term in the box below 'Event' on the table and press 'enter'. Alternatively use the dropdown lists to filter by Person, Place or Science. Click here to clear the filter.
Date |
Event |
People |
Places |
Sciences |
"Eugene Wollman put forward the theory that bacteriophages could transmit certain traits like lysis genetically to their descendents. E. Wollman, ‘Bacteriophage et processus similaire: Hérédité ou Infection?’ Bulletin Institute Pasteur, Paris, 26 (1928), 1-14.
"1928-01-01T00:00:00+00001928 | | Theory put forward about the contagious and hereditary nature of bacteriophagesWollman | Pasteur Institute | Phage therapy |
D’Herelle used the Parisian courts to force the editor of the Annals of the Pasteur Institute to publish his challenge to Bordet to a scientific duel. Most textbooks at the time sided with Bordet.1931-01-01T00:00:00+00001931 | | d’Herelle issued a public challenge to Bordet's theory about bacteriophagesBordet, d'Herelle | Pasteur Institute | Phage therapy |
Calmette was a French physician and bacteriologist who is credited with the discovery that the virulence of bovine tubercle bacilli is weakened when cultured on bile-containing medium. Discovered in 1908, this paved the way to the development of the tuberculosis vaccine Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG). The vaccine was first used in newborn infants in Paris in 1921. Calmette also developed a diagnostic test for tuberculosis, known as Calmette's reaction.1933-10-29T00:00:00+000029 Oct 1933 | | Albert Calmette diedCalmette | Institute Pasteur | Vaccines |
Émile Roux was a French physician, bacteriologist and immunologist who made his name working on diphtheria, a once fatal disease. In 1883 he helped to show that the disease was caused by a toxin secreted by the diphtheria bacillus. Based on this discovery and subsequent work by others that animals produce antibodies against the diphtheria toxin, Roux managed to develop a serum therapy to combat the disease. The treatment was proven effective in a trial conducted at the Hopital des Enfants-Malades with 300 diseased children.1933-11-03T00:00:00+00003 Nov 1933 | | Pierre Paul Émile Roux diedEmile Roux | Pasteur Institute | Bacteriology, Infectious diseases, Immunology |
Barré-Sinoussi is a virologist who shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 2008 for her contributions to identifying the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) as the cause of AIDS. She carried out this work in the 1980s at the Pasteur Institute as part of her research into retroviruses. Barré-Sinoussi has been at the forefront of efforts to develop a vaccine against HIV and a cure for the disease. Serving as the president of the International AIDS Society between 2012 and 2016 and working with WHO, Barré-Sinoussi has collaborated closely with scientists from many resource-limited countries in Africa and Asia.
1947-07-30T00:00:00+000030 Jul 1947 | | Francoise Barré-Sinoussi born in Paris, FranceBarre-Sinoussi | Pasteur Institute | Virology |
Roger Vendrely, Colette Vendrely and Andre Boivin, French scientists, report that the DNA content of cells is directly related to the chromosomes they contain. Importantly they discover half as much DNA in the nuclei of sex cells as they find in body cells. This provides further evidence for the fact that DNA is genetic material.
1949-01-01T00:00:00+00001949 | | DNA content of a cells linked to a cell's number of chromosomesVendrely, Boivin | Pasteur Institute, Strasbourg School of Medicine | DNA |
d'Herelle was a French Canadian microbiologist who co-discovered bacteriophages (phages), viruses that infect bacteria that are now major tools in biotechnology. He isolated the first phage from chicken faeces in 1919. Following this he successfully treated chickens infected with typhus with the phage and in August 1919 cured a patient with dysentery using the same method. This laid the basis for the development of phage therapy. 1949-02-22T00:00:00+000022 Feb 1949 | | Felix d'Herelle diedd'Herelle | Pasteur Institute | Antibacterial agents, Bacteriophages, Bacteriology, Virology, Phage therapy |
A team of scientists showed that genes controlled the processes by which enzymes are produced in Escherichia coli, a single-celled bacteria. The work was published in Arthur B Pardee, Francois Jacob, Jaques Monod, 'The Genetic Control and Cytoplasmic Expression of Inducibility in the Synthesis of ?-galactosidase by E. coli', Journal Molecular Biology, 1 (1969). 165-78. 1959-03-16T00:00:00+000016 Mar 1959 | | Existence of gene regulation establishedPardee, Jacob, Monod | Pasteur Institute, University of California Berkley | DNA |
Bordet was a Belgian physician, immunologist and microbiologist who won the 1919 Nobel Prize for his discovery of two components in the blood - antibodies and complement proteins. The two components help destroy invading bacteria by rupturing the cell walls of the bacteria, a process known as bacteriolysis. Bordet made the discovery in 1895. Three years later Bordet observed that red blood cells from one animal species injected into another get destroyed by haemolysis - a process analogous to bacteriolysis. His finding led to the development of diagnostic tests that hunt for antibodies in the blood to detect infectious agents. The first one was for typhoid, developed in 1896. 1961-04-06T00:00:00+00006 Apr 1961 | | Jules Bordet diedBordet | Pasteur Institute | Antibodies, Immunology, Diagnostics |
The experiment was conducted by Sidney Brenner, Francois Jacob, and Matt Meselson and published as 'An unstable intermediate carrying information from genes to ribosomes for protein synthesis', Nature, 190 (1961), 576-81. They established the mRNA was responsible for transporting genetic information from the nucleus to the protein-making machinery in a cell. 1961-05-13T00:00:00+000013 May 1961 | | Experiment confirms existence of mRNABrenner, Jacob, Meselson | University of Cambridge, Pasteur Institute, California Institute of Technology | DNA, RNA, genetics, mRNA |
The prize was awarded to François Jacob, André Lwoff and Jacques Monod for their 'discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis'. 1965-10-14T00:00:00+000014 Oct 1965 | | Nobel Prize awarded for the elucidation of the nature of mRNAJacob, Monod, Lwoff | Pasteur Institute | mRNA |
1975-01-01T00:00:00+00001975 | | Pasteur Institute scientists started to develop fractionation method to purify HBsAg from plasma to produce hepatitis B vaccineTiollais | Pasteur Institute | Vaccines |
Monod was a French biochemist who, together with Francois Jacob, worked out the genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis based on their experiments with Escherichia coli in the early 1960s. They proposed that a messenger molecule in cells carries codes from the DNA in the cell nucleus to the site of protein synthesis in the cell's cytoplasm. This molecule was later called messenger RNA and is now the basis of COVID-19 vaccines. Based on his work Monrod was awarded a Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1965. 1976-05-31T00:00:00+000031 May 1976 | | Jacques Monod diedMonod | Pasteur Institute | Genetics, mRNA |
F Galibert, E Mandart, F Fitoussi, P Tiollais, P Charnay, , 'Nucleotide sequence of the hepatitis B virus genome (subtype ayw) cloned in E. coli. Nature, 281/5733 (1979), 646-50; P. Charnay, C Pourcel, A Louise, A Fritsch, P Tiollais, 'Cloning in Escherichia coli and physical structure of hepatitis B virion DNA', PNAS USA, 76/5 (1979), 2222-26; P Charnay, E Mandart, A Hampe, F Fitoussi, P Tiollais, F Galibert, 'Localization on the viral genome and nucleotide sequence of the gene coding for the two major polypeptides of the hepatitis B surface antigen (HBs Ag)', Nucleic Acids Research, 7/2 (1979), 335-46.1979-05-01T00:00:00+0000May 1979 - Oct 1979 | | Pasteur Institute scientists reported successful cloning of hepatitis B DNA in Escherichia coliGalibert, Mandart, Fitoussi, Tiollais, Charnay, Hampe | Pasteur Institute | Recombinant DNA, Vaccines, Infectious diseases |
1980-01-01T00:00:00+00001980 | | Pasteur Institute filed for US patent for fractionation method to purify HBsAg from plasma to produce hepatitis B vaccineTiollais | Pasteur Institute | Vaccines, Infectious diseases |
The vaccines were made with HBsAg purified from plasma of people with chronic hepatitis B. The vaccines were Hevac B Pasteur - made by Merieux and the Pasteur Institute and Hepatavax made by Maurice Hilleman at Merck.1982-01-01T00:00:00+00001982 | | First plasma vaccines against hepatitis B licensed for market in US and EuropeHilleman | Merieux, Institute Pasteur, Merck | Vaccines, Infectious diseases |
1989-05-01T00:00:00+0000May 1989 | | Genetically engineered hepatitis B vaccine, GenHevac, approved in France | Pasteur Vaccins | Vaccines, Recombinant DNA, Infectious diseases |
Lwoff was a microbiologist. He shared the 1965 Nobel Prize for Medicine for 'discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis'. This was based on work he carried out in the early 1950s to understand lysogeny. This is the process by which some the genes of some viruses, bacteriophages (phage), get incorporated into the genetic material of a bacteria but remain latent until the formation of a new phage triggered by a particular event. He found that exposure to ultraviolet light was one factor that could spur on the development a new phage. Lwoff also discovered that vitamins help promote growth in microbes and can serve as co-enzymes. 1994-09-30T00:00:00+000030 Sep 1994 | | Andre Michel Lwoff diedLwoff | Pasteur Institute | Microbiology, Virology |
WL Warren, D Drake, J Moser et al (6 Dec 2011) 'Co-culture lymphoid tissue for an artificial immune system' US Patent 8,071,373 B2.2011-12-06T00:00:00+00006 Dec 2011 | | Artificial immune system patented for testing immune responses to vaccinesWarren, Drake, Moser, Inderpal Singh, Haifeng Song, Mishkin, Tew | Sanofi Pasteur | Organ-on-a-chip |
Respond to or comment on this page on our feeds on Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon or Twitter.