jules bordet experiment

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Front Immunol

100th Anniversary of Jules Bordet's Nobel Prize: Tribute to a Founding Father of Immunology

Jean-marc cavaillon.

1 Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

Philippe Sansonetti

2 Collège de France, Paris, France

Michel Goldman

3 Institute for Interdisciplinary Innovation in Healthcare (I3h), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

Associated Data

The 100th Anniversary of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1919 awarded to Jules Bordet offers the opportunity to underline the contributions of this Belgian doctor to the blooming of immunology at the end of the nineteenth century at the Institut Pasteur de Paris. It is also the occasion to emphasize his achievements as director of the Institut Pasteur du Brabant and professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles. Both in France and Belgium, he developed a holistic vision of immunology as a science at the crossroads of chemistry, physiology, and microbiology.

Introduction

Although the discovery of vaccination by Edward Jenner (1749–1823) at the end of the eighteen century was the first evidence for the existence of an immune system, immunology as a science only emerged more than one century later as a reflection of the host response to bacterial infections and bacterial toxins ( 1 ) with the pioneering works of Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915), Ilya Ilitch Metchnikoff (1845–1916), Emil von Behring (1854–1917), and Jules Bordet (1870–1961) ( 2 , 3 ). Interestingly enough, two of these founding fathers of immunology worked at the Institut Pasteur de Paris, a unique scientific environment created in 1888 to build upon the seminal discovery of the anti-rabies vaccine by Louis Pasteur in 1885 ( 4 ).

Herein, we focus on Jules Bordet ( Figure 1 ) as a scientist and a humanist, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of his Nobel prize. We review the genesis of his major discoveries and conclude on Jules Bordet's legacy as a source of inspiration for future immunologists. On October, 28th, 1920, Jules Bordet was awarded with the 1919 Nobel prize, “for his discoveries relating to immunity,” namely his work on the complement system. He deciphered the mechanisms of the bacteriolytic activity of immune serum obtained in animals immunized with bacteria, and the hemolysis capacity of anti-red blood cell immune sera. But he was also a distinguished bacteriologist who worked on bacteriophages and discovered the causative bacterium of whooping cough, named Bordetella pertussis .

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Jules Bordet in Elie Metchnikoff's laboratory.

The Early Years: From Botany to Immunology

Jules Bordet was born in 1870 in Soignies, a small Belgian town where his father Charles-Henri was a school teacher ( 5 ). At the age of 16, he entered the Université Libre de Bruxelles as a medical student, simultaneously with his older brother Charles. In parallel to their medical training, both brothers undertook experimental research. Jules Bordet was undoubtedly influenced by the ingenious studies of his brother on chemotactism ( 6 , 7 ) when he started himself to investigate chemotactism of gametes of algae at the Botanical Institute of the Université libre de Bruxelles ( 8 ). It is in the same laboratory that he studied the mechanisms by which the virulence of Vibrio metchnikovii increased after serial passages in immunized guinea-pigs. He concluded from these experiments that the increased virulence was consecutive to a reduced toxicity and a reduced chemotactism. This work was published in 1892, in the Annales de l'Institut Pasteur with the following title “Adaptation des virus aux organismes vaccinés” ( 9 ). Jules Bordet obtained his medical graduation during the same year, 1 year ahead of his classmates. After a 1 year clinical experience in a hospital on the North Sea coast, he moved to the Institut Pasteur de Paris thanks to a travel award from the Belgian Government.

A Founding Father of Immunology at the Institut Pasteur de Paris

Jules Bordet joined the Institut Pasteur in April 1894 where he attended the ≪ Grand Cours de Microbie ≫ organized by Dr. Emile Roux ( Figure 2 ). This gave him the opportunity to meet Elie Metchnikoff, the father of cellular immunity. Very soon, Jules Bordet joined the Metchnikoff's laboratory in which he developed an independent line of research which culminated in the seminal demonstration that killing of bacteria depends on interactions between antigens, antibodies, and complement. Metchnikoff rapidly recognized the importance of Bordet's contributions which he already mentioned in his report to the International Congress of Budapest in 1894 ( 10 ). It is during the same period that Jules Bordet deciphered essential mechanisms of agglutination and lysis of sensitized red blood cells.

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Group photo of the 1895 Technical Microbie Course of Institut Pasteur. First on the left, third raw: J. Bordet; Fifth and sixth from the left, first raw, seated: E. Metchnikoff and E. Roux. J. Danysz is standing just in front of J. Bordet.

Jules Bordet stayed In Paris until 1901 with a 1 year interlude in 1897 when he conducted a scientific mission in the Transvaal (South Africa) on behalf of the Institut Pasteur. The objective was to study and possibly solve a rinderpest epidemic. He succeeded in this endeavor by devising a method based on a serotherapy principle. Serotherapy had been established by Emil von Behring and Shibasaburo Kitasato ( 11 ), and used on a large scale by Emile Roux (1853–1933) to cure diphtheria ( 12 ).

No doubt, that Bordet's stay at Institut Pasteur in the laboratory of Elie Metchnikoff, one of the most amazing and outstanding scientists of the time ( 13 ), deeply influenced the trajectory of his professional life. On the other hand, Jules Bordet remained a cherished fellow of the Institut Pasteur de Paris throughout his career as it was emphasized during the celebration of his 80th anniversary and during his funerals in 1961 (see Supplementary Materials ).

Back to Belgium to Lead a New Institut Pasteur

In 1901, Jules Bordet returned to Brussels where he had been invited to lead a new institute dedicated to anti-rabies vaccination and bacteriological studies. In 1908, this institute was eventually named Institut Pasteur du Brabant upon agreement by Louis Pasteur's widow. Jules Bordet's commitment to the management of the Institute did not prevent him to further develop his research activities. Indeed, this was the place where he developed pioneering serological tests based on complement fixation and engaged in successful bacteriological studies leading to the discovery of the whooping cough bacillus and the agent of avian diphtheria ( 5 ).

In 1907, Jules Bordet was appointed as the Chair of Bacteriology at the Université libre de Bruxelles where medical students enjoyed his inspiring courses on infectious agents and immune defenses. During the difficult times of World War I, Jules Bordet decided to take a focus his energy on an in-depth review of the knowledge available at the time on immune defenses. This endeavor resulted in a remarkable book entitled “Traité de l'immunité dans les maladies infectieuses,” which covered all the contemporary knowledge on immunology, illustrating his mastering of the field ( 14 ). After the war, Jules Bordet engaged himself in supporting the redevelopment of the Université libre de Bruxelles. It is during a fundraising mission in the United States in 1920 that he learned his designation as laureate of the 1919 Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology. In the ensuing years, Jules Bordet helped to establish a center for prophylaxis of the rinderpest in Brussels and became the President of the Conseil Scientifique de l'Institut Pasteur de Paris. He remained scientifically productive with a keen interest in bacteriophages ( 15 – 17 ). However, Bordet was the mastermind of the soluble enzyme hypothesis against the microorganism hypothesis ( 18 ). He transmitted his interest in bacteriophages to his son Paul Bordet (1906–1987) who succeeded him both at the Université libre de Bruxelles and at the Institut Pasteur du Brabant.

Jules Bordet infused his family with his passion for medicine and academic research across several generations. His grandchild André Govaerts (1930–2015), who became Chair of immunology at the Université libre de Bruxelles, demonstrated the involvement of cytotoxic lymphocytes in the rejection of renal allografts in dogs ( 19 ). In a touching testimony, his grand-daughter Raymonde Craps revealed the deep attention paid by Jules Bordet to his family ( Supplementary Materials ).

Toward the end of his life, the scientific curiosity of Jules Bordet remained insatiable, leading him to explore new territories such as astronomy, a topic on which he wrote a book (Elements d'astronomie, 1956) aimed to provide some basic clues to the visitors of the planetarium. Also, he became more and more concerned by philosophical, and societal aspects of science. In 1945, he published a booklet entitled “ Brèves considérations sur le mode de gouvernement, la liberté et l'éducation morale,“ in which he developed his broad vision of science and ethics as driving forces for all people of goodwill ( 20 ). Jules Bordet peacefully died in Brussels in April 1961.

Major discoveries in perspective

Identification of complement and its interaction with antibodies to induce bacteriolysis.

Before Bordet published his first report on what we nowadays call the complement system, quite a few reports had already been published on the bactericidal activity of sera ( Supplementary Figure 1 , Supplementary Materials ).

The seminal paper of Jules Bordet which led to a new concept of bacteriolysis was published in 1895 ( 21 ). It was his first article published during his stay in Metchnikoff's laboratory. It aimed at deciphering the so-called “Pfeiffer phenomenon,” namely the alteration and complete disintegration of Vibrio cholerae when introduced into the peritoneal cavity of an immunized guinea pig or into that of a normal one if immune serum is injected at the same time. For Metchnikoff, this observation was mainly due to the phagocytes, while Pfeiffer considered that it was the reflection of the bactericidal activity of the humors. Through an extensive series of experiments, Bordet demonstrated that heat-stable (56°C for 30 min) substances present in sera of immunized animals induced agglutination of vibrios but did not kill them. Indeed, the lysis of vibrios was found to require a heat-labile agent also present in the serum of unimmunized animals. These substances which were qualified as “sensitizers” correspond to the antibodies which were characterized later on. Bordet favored the word alexin, coined by Hans Buchner (1850-1902) to characterize the substance responsible for the bacteriolysis. Most interestingly, Bordet referred in his paper to the work of Joseph Denys (1857–1932) who had reported the same year, the process of opsonization ( 22 ). The word opsonization was coined later -in 1903- by Sir Edward Almroth Wright (1861–1947) ( 23 ). Bordet qualified as “stimuline” the positive action of so-called “preventive sera” to boost the phagocytosis process. However, for Metchnikoff, opsonization will never be a central concept to explain the most efficient collaborative role between phagocytes and serum factors. For example, he wrote in a preface of a book in 1915: “ The fact that phagocytosis is often “spontaneous”, independent from the contribution of opsonins, and the fact that researches on opsonic action have been performed in vitro, outside the body, does not allow to attribute a considerable role to this humoral factor ” ( 24 ). This comes a bit in contrast to the observation and the claims of Bordet.

Using more than 25 guinea-pigs, few rabbits and a goat, injected with different cholera vibrios strains and the vibrio metchnikovii , Bordet addressed the specificity and the cross-reactivity of the immune sera. Most importantly, he dissociated the preventive activity of the immune sera (antibodies) which provides the specificity from the heat-labile bactericidal activity (alexin/complement) present in both normal and immune serum, establishing the complementary activity of both components. For example, he reconstituted the bacteriolysis activity of a heat-treated preventive serum by adding fresh normal serum. But he also concluded that the bactericidal activity was derived from the leukocytes. This idea will be perpetuated in Metchnikoff's team, and while they were most probably observing the consequence of netosis discovered in 2004 ( 25 ), they maintained the idea that dead neutrophils contribute to the bactericidal activity found in sera ( 26 ). Indeed, the bacteriolytic activity of leukocyte lysates had been observed by many other investigators ( 27 – 29 ).

The following year Bordet published a paper entirely dedicated to phagocytosis, the specialty of his host laboratory ( 30 ). Working in vivo in guinea-pigs or in vitro with peritoneal exudates, he compared the phagocytic capacity toward an amazingly large panel of bacteria He reported that the speed, the intensity and the bactericidal activity varied from bacteria to bacteria. The same year, Bordet published a paper purely on humoral immunity, devoted to the mode of action of preventive sera ( 31 ). In this paper he wrote: “ We will have to quote many times the work of Mr. Metchnikoff, whose experience and valuable advice greatly benefit to those who work with him. May our dear and respected master receive here the expression of our gratitude.” Interestingly, Bordet refers to the principle of agglutination, a word coined by Max von Gruber (1853–1927) in 1896 ( 32 ) concerning a mechanism already reported by Albert Charrin (1856–1907) in 1889 in Paris ( 33 ), which could be used for diagnosis. Interestingly, he also refers to hemagglutination (although the word had not yet been coined), a phenomenon similar to the agglutination of bacteria by immune sera. Referring to active and passive immunity, he supported the concept defended by Metchnikoff: “ Humors when they transform vibrios and alter them deeply, work, as repositories of active principles derived from leukocytes. If it is true that they can in some cases decimate the vibrios, however, phagocytosis always potently intervenes, acting by the end for the final destruction of the bacterium .” While he considered that alexin is contained within the leukocytes and diffuses from them, he concluded that passive immunity increases the phagocytic bactericidal power.

In 1897, Bordet published an exhaustive analysis of the immunity against Streptococcus ( 34 ). He reported the extreme sensitivity of rabbits and the lower sensitivity of the guinea-pigs. Fascinatingly, Bordet described all the amazing properties of this bacterium, such as its capacity to prevent phagocytosis. A similar observation had already been made in Metchnikoff's laboratory when Nicolaï Tchistovitch (1860–1926) investigated the phagocytosis of Pasteurella multicoda by alveolar macrophages ( 35 ). Later on, it has been well-established that streptococcal M protein, H protein, and M-related protein contribute to the mechanism of evasion of phagocytosis by the bacterium. Furthermore, he mentioned that the bacterium had the capacity to survive within the phagocyte, a well-recognized pathogenic mechanism. He also reported the capacity of Streptococcus to interfere with the bactericidal activity of the sera, a function nowadays recognized as the reflection of certain streptococcal proteins to limit complement activation. Finally, he reported the major hemolysis observed during this type of infection, reminiscent of the capacity of this pathogen to release hemolysin. He also stated: “ Macrophages do not confine themselves to phagocyte streptococci on their own account, they also take in up more or less degenerate polymorphonuclear cells, which had previously seized the microbes ”. What Bordet was describing, nowadays known as efferocytosis, had actually already been described in Metchnikoff's laboratory by Marc Armand Ruffer (1859–1917) 7 years earlier ( 36 , 37 ).

Mechanisms of Hemagglutination and Hemolysis of Sensitized Erythrocytes

In the following years, Bordet focused his efforts on the phenomena of agglutination of red blood cells by antibodies and hemolysis by immune sera ( 38 – 40 ). He injected rabbit whole blood in the peritoneal cavity of guinea-pigs and found that immune sera from injected animals exert similar actions on the red blood cells as sera of animals immunized against vibrios. A heat-labile factor already present in normal serum was shown to contribute to hemolysis, while elements present in immune sera contributed to the agglutination of erythrocytes. It is much later that this process of hemagglutination was shown to depend on multivalent antibodies. Bordet also prepared immune sera against milk and showed their capacity to form agglomerates. He concluded that hemagglutination was a process similar to the process of coagulation. Preparing rabbit immune serum against chicken red blood cells, he showed the capacity of these sera to agglutinate and lyse the chicken erythrocytes, leaving alone the nucleus. In vivo , those were taken up by macrophages. Mixing rabbit blood with heat-deactivated (“decomplemented” as we would say nowadays) anti-rabbit erythrocyte serum from guinea-pigs, he showed that the rabbit alexin could contribute to the lysis of its own sensitized red blood cells. Similar demonstrations were made with rat, goat and dog sera as a source of alexin. The serum of guinea pigs was found a most efficient source of alexin whereas chicken alexin could not complement the activity of rabbit or guinea-pig anti-chicken erythrocytes. This led Bordet to propose that the alexin involved in bacteriolysis was the same than the alexin involved in hemolysis. He showed that the antibodies were directed against the stroma of red cells, since immunization with stroma of red blood cells ended to a similar hemolytic activity as when whole blood was used. Moreover, he observed that the anti-erythrocyte serum was lethal when injected intravenously in rabbits, whereas after subcutaneous injection he obtained an anti-hemolytic serum which could neutralize both the “sensitizers” and the alexin ( 41 ). He further reported that the generated anti-alexin, was species specific. Collectively, these studies of Jules Bordet establishing that red blood cells from different species could be recognized by antibodies in a specific manner, paved the way for the discovery of blood groups by Karl Landsteiner (1868–1943), another Nobel laureate ( 42 ).

Serodiagnostic Tests Based on the Complement-Deviation Principle

Octave Gengou (1875–1957), a Belgian physician and bacteriologist, joined Bordet in Metchnikoff's laboratory. Marrying on July 1903, Berthe Levoz (1872–1941), the sister of Bordet's wife, he became his brother-in-law. Interestingly, in 1901, both reported that the antisera prepared against blood derived from different animal species, were also containing antibodies able to neutralize the coagulation process ( 43 ). The two Belgian partners also demonstrated that heat-inactivated immune sera raised against Yersinia pestis, Bacillus anthracis, Erysipelothrix rhusiopathiae, Salmonella typhi, or Proteus vulgaris could be bactericidal when supplemented with fresh guinea pig serum ( 44 ). Of note some of the immune sera were of horse origin, confirming that alexin can cross the species. A similar demonstration was performed with sera obtained from patients recovering from typhoid fever. Furthermore, Bordet and Gengou elegantly demonstrated the consumption of the alexin by a previous mixture of bacteria with the corresponding antiserum. When such a serum was mixed with a heat decomplemented mixture of red blood cells and anti-erythrocyte serum, no hemolysis could be observed, illustrating that the alexin had been absorbed by the first antigen-antibody complex. Such an approach has been exploited by August von Wassermann (1866–1925) and his German colleagues to develop a diagnosis test of syphilis ( 45 ), known as the Bordet-Wassermann test.

Bordet questioned the mechanism of interaction between the “sensitizers” and the alexin ( 46 ). In this paper, Bordet reasserted his attachment to the word alexin: “ It is therefore appropriate to give up with these names of zwischenkörper, amboreceptor, complement, terms which have been chosen under the influence of surely ingenious theoretical ideas, capable, thanks to the experiments they have inspired to allow progress of science, but for which the experience does not justify ”. For Bordet, once the antibodies bind their target, they allow the alexin to bind to this target, while his German competitors, Ehrlich and Morgenroth, favor a direct interaction of alexin with antibodies once the latter have interacted with their target ( 47 ). Nowadays, we know that indeed the complement system, upon activation by the classical pathway requires first the interaction of the C1 molecule with the antibody.

In a paper written, once back in Brussels together with Frederick Parker Gay (1874–1939), a visiting scientist from the USA, Bordet summarized his vision of the phenomenon as follows: “ Experimenters who studied hemolysis propose very different ideas about the relationships that are established between the sensitized globule and the active substances, sensitizer (amboceptor) and alexin (complement). It is well known, that first the globules bind the sensitizer (Ehrlich and Morgenroth), then the thus modified globules have acquired the power, which they did not display before, to absorb the alexin with such energy that they can strip it from the ambient liquid” ( 48 ).

Method for Rinderpest Control

Emil Adolf von Behring (1854–1917), first laureate of the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine (1901), demonstrated in 1890 with Shibasaburo Kitasato (1853–1931) that passive immunization can treat or prevent tetanus ( 11 ), and reported with Erich Wernicke (1853–1931) that it could also protect against diphtheria ( 49 ), paving the way to serotherapy. Jules Bordet successfully applied serotherapy to rinderpest, also known as cattle plague. This devastating disease which killed close to 100% of affected animals, reached in 1896 the state of Transvaal in South Africa. The government of this free state decided to call upon European scientists to fight the disease. Thus, Robert Koch came from Berlin to Kimberley while Jules Bordet, accompanied by Jan Danysz (1860–1928), a Polish bacteriologist who had joined the Institut Pasteur, were sent for a scientific mission in Pretoria. On site, they received help from Arnold Theiler (1867–1936), a young Swiss veterinary surgeon who had an official position among the Transvaal authorities ( 50 ). Robert Koch advocated the injection of bile obtained from an infected ox, a treatment which eventually proved unsuccessful. Bordet and his colleagues focused their efforts on serotherapy. Collecting blood and sera from surviving infected animals, they could offer an efficient curative treatment ( 51 ). Ironically, the methods came to be known as “the method of the French doctors” ( 52 ). The expertise of Bordet acquired in Africa was useful when a rinderpest epizootic occurred in Belgium in 1920. Roux and Calmette went in Belgium to set up a program to fight the disease using immune sera, made both in Egypt and in the veterinary school of Cureghem, close to Brussels.

Identification of the Agent of Whooping Cough

While in Paris, Bordet's 5 month-old baby girl got whooping-cough. Bordet discovered the presence of the responsible microorganism in her sputum, but could not isolated it until 1906, when his son, Paul, also got whooping-cough. Bordet and Gengou then developed an appropriate culture medium allowing them to isolate the bacillus. The medium prepared from potatoes, physiologic serum, agar, and rabbit blood was shown to also be convenient for other microorganisms ( 53 ). Bordet and Gengou specified that the bacterium was particularly abundant at the onset of the disease, then rapidly decreased in number. They also showed that the isolated microorganism could be lethal when used at high concentrations in guinea-pigs. Interestingly, they demonstrated that sera from convalescent children could agglutinate the bacteria and using the complement consumption approach confirmed that they contain specific antibodies. The anteriority of the work of our two Belgian doctors was disputed by Dr. Reyher, from the Charité Hospital in Berlin ( 54 ). Then Bordet and Gengou asked Reyher to send his isolated bacterium to allow a fine comparison. Reyher declined to do so. Bordet and Gengou thereafter presented a series of articulated arguments to demonstrate the inappropriateness of his claim ( 55 ). Their final scathing comment is worth to mention: “To conclude this long discussion, we feel that the columns of these Annals, our time, and certainly also that of Mr. Reyher, could have been more usefully employed.” The name Bordetella pertussis given to the pathogen unambiguously demonstrates that the scientific community gave full credit to Bordet for the discovery and identification of the microorganism. In 1909, Bordet and Gengou published their investigation on the endotoxin of Bordetella pertussis ( 56 ) and reported its strong toxicity in guinea pigs and rabbits and its lability to heat treatment. Knowing the heat resistance of endotoxins, and the specifically poor activity of Bordetella pertussi s endotoxin as compared to others ( 57 ), because its lipid A is penta-acylated ( 58 ), it is most probable that the Belgian scientists were dealing with a mixture of bacterial products rather than the purified endotoxin.

Other Scientific Contributions

Demonstration of antibody-independent anaphylactoid reactions.

Bordet has been puzzled by the anaphylaxis phenomenon described by the French physiologist Charles Robert Richet (1850–1935) together with Paul Portier (1866–1962) ( 59 ). Richet was awarded the Nobel prize for his discovery in 1913. Bordet showed that agents other than antibodies can cause anaphylactic-like reactions; they were named anaphylatoxins. Together with Edward Zunz they demonstrated that agar added to guinea pig serum led to the formation of anaphylatoxin activity that was heat-sensitive ( 60 ). He therefore suggested that this activity was similar to alexin. Little attention was paid to this hypothesis until few decades later when complement activation was found to generate anaphylatoxins that induce the release of histamine from basophils ( 61 ).

Identification of a Bacteriolytic Activity in Human Milk

In 1922, Alexander Fleming's (1881–1955) discovered that biological fluids can kill staphylococci in vitro ( 62 ). Subsequently, Bordet was the first to demonstrate that human colostrum and milk were bacteriolytic ( 63 ). He found that the causative agent was heat-resistant and therefore could not be related to complement. Actually, the bacteriolytic activity present in milk and other human secretory fluids was found five decades later to correspond to lysozyme.

Concluding Remarks: Jules Bordet as a Continuous Source of Inspiration for Immunologists

One major lesson learned from Jules Bordet and which is still valid for today's scientists in biomedicine, particularly those at the onset of their career, is that doing basic research is fully compatible with a cross-disciplinary approach. The former route, thanks to in-depth investigation of selected biological processes, is essential to convincingly decipher vital principles that, in addition to decisively changing established views, also offers solid opportunities for game-changing applications in prevention and therapeutics. The latter route exploring neighboring—or sometimes remote—scientific territories and disciplines, broadens the scope of investigations and thereby offers a holistic perspective and increases chances to reveal the multiple facets of the studied topic. As a matter of fact, this is exactly how Jules Bordet proceeded. He could have focused on characterizing the nature and structure of antigens, or of antibodies, or on characterizing some alexin's components. He did not and decided to study the three in interaction, hence discovering the basic principle of serum bactericidal activity that illuminated the concept of humoral protection against infectious agents and offered entirely novel diagnostic methods and concepts to rationalize serotherapy. It is also by venturing more into microbiology which, at that time, was fully syncretic to immunology, that he discovered Bordetella pertussis thanks to a fruitful collaboration with Octave Gengou, a master in preparing complex growth media. By today's standards, evaluation panels might consider this as intellectual dispersion and would recommend to focus… What a nonsense it would have been! Why did Jules Bordet nonetheless succeed? Probably because his solid training in physiology helped him venturing in neighboring territories with a good compass often taking him to a pertinent destination. Indeed, broad initial education, developed sense of navigation in unknown territories, outstanding working capacity, may have been his recipe for success as a biomedical scientist. Furthermore, let's remember that many of the seminal contributions of Jules Bordet were based on studies using animal's or patients' specimens. In that sense, Jules Bordet can also be considered as a pioneer of translational research.

Exceptional individuals who successfully embraced several scientific or artistic disciplines are often qualified as polymaths ( 64 ). Jules Bordet is indeed recognized as a great polymath immunologist ( 5 ). More than ever, interdisciplinary approaches are needed to translate results from immunological research into medical advances. In the forthcoming era of precision medicine, system biology approaches will be required to integrate in-depth characterization of molecular signaling pathways together with knowledge on genetic, epigenetic, and environmental factors that shape immune responses. Novel clinical trial designs requiring careful ethical considerations, as well as innovative regulatory pathways and economic schemes will equally be important to make immune-based therapies and vaccines accessible and affordable. More than ever, polymath scientists with a holistic vision of immunology are needed ( 65 ). In order to educate and train them, academic institutions will have to break down silos and build upon the inspiring aphorism of Jules Bordet: “One of the great services that every science can render to our research is to invite us, as an introduction, to leave it for its neighbor” (14, translated from French).

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We thank the photo library of the Institut Pasteur for providing the pictures.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2019.02114/full#supplementary-material

Jules Bordet, M.D.

Brief Bio

Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet was born in Soignies, Belgium, on June 13, 1870, Bordet grew up in Brussels, where his father, a teacher, relocated the family in 1874. Bordet developed an interest in chemistry while in secondary school and purportedly carried out dangerous chemical experiments in the makeshift laboratory he set up in the attic of the family home. At the age of 16, he entered the Free University of Brussels, where he earned his M.D. in 1892 after only four years of study rather than the customary five. Supported by a scholarship from the Belgian government, Bordet moved to Paris to work in Metchnikoff's laboratory at the Pasteur Institute. He returned to Brussels in 1901 to head the newly formed Anti-Rabies and Bacteriological Institute, which in 1903, with the blessing of Madame Pasteur, he renamed the Pasteur Institute in honor of its namesake in Paris.

For the next four decades, Bordet served as director of the Pasteur Institute in Brussels. From 1907 to 1937, he was also a professor of bacteriology at the University of Brussels. Bordet continued his experimental research throughout these years, pausing only from 1914 to 1918 when the German occupation of Belgium made research impossible. Even through this interruption, Bordet remained productive, writing a classic book on immunity and infectious disease, Traité de l'Immunité dans les Maladies Infectieuses . At the time of the Nobel announcement in October 1920, Bordet was in the United States on a lecture tour to raise funds for his institute; he did not return to Europe in time to attend the presentation ceremony

Bordet's pace slowed only in the late 1930s. He became professor emeritus at the University of Brussels in 1937, and, three years later, as Germany again occupied Belgium, he stepped down from his position at the Pasteur Institute, handing the directorship over to his son, Paul. Although deteriorating eyesight made lab work impossible, Bordet regularly visited the institute and attended scientific conferences well into his eighties.

Bordet died in his home in Brussels on April 6, 1961, at the age of 90.

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

aai service history, nobel prize in science.

Jules Bordet was awarded the 1919 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discoveries relating to immunity," including the discovery of complement, the development of complement fixation tests, and the identification of the bacterium that causes whooping cough.

Bordet conducted the experiments that led to his discovery of complement while working in the laboratory of Élie Metchnikoff at the Pasteur Institute in 1895. Bordet was studying the phenomenon known as bacteriolysis that Richard Pfeiffer had described the year before. Pfeiffer discovered the phenomenon when he injected cholera bacteria into the abdominal cavity of immunized guinea pigs. He had noted that bacteriolysis also occurred in nonimmunized guinea pigs if serum from immunized guinea pigs was injected along with the cholera bacteria. Because the antiserum did not kill the bacteria in vitro, Pfeiffer concluded that cells in the abdominal cavity of the guinea pigs must play a central role in bacteriolysis. Experimenting with different combinations of cholera bacteria, antiserum, and serum, Bordet discovered that antiserum would in fact induce bacteriolysis in vitro as long as it was fresh. Once antiserum had aged and reached a temperature of 55 degrees Celsius, it lost its bacteriolytic properties. Adding fresh serum from a nonimmunized animal restored the potency of the antiserum, however, leading Bordet to conclude that bacteriolysis was dependent on the presence of two distinct components: a specific antibody, which did not appear to be susceptible to fluctuations in temperature, and a second component that was heat sensitive. Bordet noted that this second component, now known as "complement" (he referred to it as "alexin"), is present in the blood of all animals, whether immunized or not.

Having already made a fundamental immunological discovery by the age of 25, Bordet continued to contribute to the field for another four decades. Three years after elucidating the role of complement in bacteriolysis, he began experimenting with red blood cells. Injecting the red cells of one species into another, he discovered the phenomenon of hemolysis, in which the immune system attacked the foreign red cells. Moreover, he found that complement performs the same function in hemolysis as it does in bacteriolysis. In 1901, with the help of his brother-in-law, Octave Gengou, he developed the complement fixation test, the diagnostic method upon which August Paul von Wassermann based his syphilis test. Five years later, when Bordet's son contracted whooping cough, Bordet and Gengou used samples of the boy's sputum to successfully isolate the causal agent of the disease, the eponymous bacterium, Bordetella pertussis . In the 1920s, Bordet turned his attention to the study of bacteriophage, which remained his primary research interest until his retirement in 1940.

Looking back on Bordet's remarkable career, Cyril L. Oakley, professor of bacteriology at the University of Leeds, noted that Bordet's work was "characterized by clear-cut crucial experiments, by a meticulous technique, and by a clear understanding of the need for proper controls, very unusual at the time." Despite this close attention to detail, Oakley observed, Bordet never lost view of the larger picture: he "was able to correlate one subject with another in a way that made all biological science his province."

Awards and Honors

Prix de la Ville de Paris, 1911
Emile Chr. Hansen Prize, Swedish Medical Society, 1914
Pasteur Medal, Swedish Medical Association, 1920
Fellow, Royal Society (UK), 1916
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine , 1919
Member of the Royal Academy of Belgium, 1919
Foreign member, Academy of Medicine (France), 1921
Foreign member, Royal Society of Edinburgh, 1927
Grand Cordon de l'Ordre de la Couronne de Belgique, 1930
Foreign member, National Academy of Sciences, 1935
Grand Cordon de l'Ordre de Léopold, 1937
Grand Croix de la Légion d'Honneur, 1938

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Jules Bordet

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Nobelprize.org - Biography of Jules Bordet

Jules Bordet (born June 13, 1870, Soignies, Belg.—died April 6, 1961, Brussels) was a Belgian physician, bacteriologist, and immunologist who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1919 for his discovery of factors in blood serum that destroy bacteria; this work was vital to the diagnosis and treatment of many dangerous contagious diseases.

Bordet’s research on the destruction of bacteria and red corpuscles in blood serum, conducted at the Pasteur Institute, Paris (1894–1901), contributed significantly to the foundation of serology , the study of immune reactions in body fluids. In 1895 he found that two components of blood serum are responsible for the rupture of bacterial cell walls (bacteriolysis): one is a heat-stable antibody found only in animals already immune to the bacterium; the other is a heat-sensitive substance found in all animals that was named alexin (it is now called complement ). Three years later Bordet discovered that red blood cells from one animal species that are injected into another species are destroyed through a process ( hemolysis ) analogous to bacteriolysis.

In Brussels , where Bordet founded and directed (1901–40) what is now the Pasteur Institute of Brussels, he continued his immunity research with Octave Gengou, his brother-in-law. Their work led to the development of the complement-fixation test, a diagnostic technique that was used to detect the presence of infectious agents in the blood, including those that cause typhoid , tuberculosis , and, most notably, syphilis (the Wassermann test). After discovering (with Gengou in 1906) the bacterium, now known as Bordetella pertussis , that is responsible for whooping cough , Bordet became professor of bacteriology at the Free University of Brussels (1907–35).

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Jules Bordet (1870-1961)

In 1919 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his work on the role of antibodies and the complement system. Jules Bordet’s discoveries expanded early 20th century knowledge of immunology considerably.

"For his discoveries relating to immunity."

In 1894 Jules Bordet joined the laboratory of Ilya Mechnikov under a grant from the Belgian government. He worked there until 1901.

From 1895 to 1896 he investigated the mechanisms of bacterial agglutination and destruction (bacteriolysis) by immune serum and thus underlined the role of humoral immunity in antimicrobial defense processes. He showed that bacteriolysis results from the combined action of two factors in blood serum: complement, a non-specific heat-labile factor initially called "alexin", and a specific heat-stable or sensitizing factor (the "antibodies") so called because it sensitizes the microbe to the bacteriolytic action of the alexin. He also showed that agglutination preceding lysis is due to the antibody and does not involve the complement. As early as 1895 he therefore clarified the bacterial destruction mechanism in vaccinated individuals.

Thanks to this discovery, during the same year he established the principle of in vitro serodiagnostic methods - i.e. diagnosing patients using a serum assay. This principle was subsequently used to diagnose the majority of infectious diseases.

In 1898, he expanded our knowledge of immunology further by showing that an organism can become immune not only to microbes, but also to cells from foreign animal species via the same mechanism. Like anti-infectious immunity, the immunity thus acquired is specific, meaning that it can distinguish between the cells of the various animal species. It was thus established that the diversity of animal species is reflected in the diversity of their cellular structure. This fundamental concept may be considered to be behind the discovery of blood groups and the phenomenon of graft rejection later on. In 1900 he described the complement-fixation reaction. In 1906 this led to the widely used serum diagnosis test for syphilis developed by Wassermann, hence the name Bordet-Wassermann reaction. Jules Bordet was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1919.

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Historical Commentary
Published: July 2008

Immunology's foundation: the 100-year anniversary of the Nobel Prize to Paul Ehrlich and Elie Metchnikoff

Stefan H E Kaufmann 1

Nature Immunology volume 9 , pages 705–712 ( 2008 ) Cite this article

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One hundred years ago the birth of immunology was made official by the Nobel Prize award to Elie Metchnikoff and Paul Ehrlich. Metchnikoff discovered phagocytosis by macrophages and microphages as a critical host-defense mechanism and thus is considered the father of cellular innate immunity. Ehrlich described the side-chain theory of antibody formation and the mechanisms of how antibodies neutralize toxins and induce bacterial lysis with the help of complement and thus is considered one of the fathers of humoral adaptive immunity. Despite many discordant discussions in the initial phase after these discoveries, innate and adaptive responses are now known to be complementary partners in producing robust immunity.

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I thank M.L. Grossman for help in preparing this manuscript and D. Schad for preparing the artwork. Unless otherwise stated, all citations have been 'freely translated' into English by me and all cited papers are in my possession in original form or as copies.

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Kaufmann, S. Immunology's foundation: the 100-year anniversary of the Nobel Prize to Paul Ehrlich and Elie Metchnikoff. Nat Immunol 9 , 705–712 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/ni0708-705

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Dworkin J, Tan SY Correspondence: Prof Tan Siang Yong, [email protected] SUMMARY At the time when Jules Bordet began his groundbreaking experiments at the Pasteur Institute, the field of immunology was shrouded in pseudoscientific uncertainty. The lifting of this veil, through the persistent and patient process of experimentation, was Bordet’s great contribution to medicine in the 20th century.

• Crist E. Debating humoral immunity and epistemology: the rivalry of the immunochemists Jules Bordet and Paul Ehrlich. J Hist Biol 1997; 30:321-56.

• Jules Bordet. World of Anatomy and Physiology. Online: Thomson Gale, 2006. Reproduced in Biography Resource Center. Farmington Hills: Gale, 2009.

• Jules Bordet (1870-1961). Am J Public Health Nationals Health. 1962; 52:311-2. de Kruif P. Microbe Hunters. Rahway: Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1926: 226-7.

• Laurell AB. Jules Bordet – a giant in immunology. Scand J Immunol 1990; 32:429-32.

• Magner L. A History of Medicine, 2nd ed. New York-London: Taylor & Francis Group, 2005: 550-6, 567-8.


• Petterson A. The Nobel lectures in immunology. The Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine, 1919, awarded to Jules Bordet 'for his discoveries relating to immunity'. Scand J Immunol 1990; 32:425-8.

• Terris M. George Rosen and the American public health tradition. Am Public Health 1979; 69:173-6.

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Jules Bordet, the Discoverer of Bordetella pertussis: The Father of Belgian Microbiology?

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Jean-Claude Legrand, Jules Bordet, the Discoverer of Bordetella pertussis: The Father of Belgian Microbiology?, Clinical Infectious Diseases , Volume 44, Issue 9, 1 May 2007, Page 1256, https://doi.org/10.1086/513583

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T o the E ditor —In the comment of the cover of the 15 November 2006 issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases (vol. 43, no. 10), Jules Bordet and Octave Gengou were referred to as “French investigators.” In fact, Jules Bordet was a Belgian scientist and was affiliated with the faculty of medicine at the Free University of Brussels. He can be considered the “father” of the Belgian microbiology school. He also researched syphilis, and his “réaction de Bordet-Wasserman” has been the leading nontreponemal test for syphilis for a long time. His nephew, Paul Bordet, was also a professor of microbiology at the same university and, as one of his students during 1971–1972, I remember he told us how his uncle discovered the agent of the “coqueluche” (whooping cough). One Sunday morning, after Paul and his sister had experienced whooping cough all night, Jules Bordet, who was incidentally in their house, presented a Petri box with a new special medium of his own in front of the mouth of both the boy and the girl. Paul did not know which of the specimens would reveal the coming Bordetella pertussis strain.

The name “Bordet” was later given to a building and an affiliated oncology clinic that could be considered to have been the nest of the Belgian Clinical Infectious Diseases school in the late 1970s, with such outstanding personalities as J. P. Theys (general infectiology), F. Meunier (mycology in cancer patients), J. Klastersky (febrile neutropenia), and N. Clumeck (HIV infection).

Potential conflicts of interest . J.C.L.: no conflicts.

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100th Anniversary of Jules Bordet's Nobel Prize: Tribute to a Founding Father of Immunology

Affiliations.

1 Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.
2 Collège de France, Paris, France.
3 Institute for Interdisciplinary Innovation in Healthcare (I3h), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium.
PMID: 31572361
PMCID: PMC6749103
DOI: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.02114

Keywords: Bordetella pertussis (whooping cough); Metchnikoff; alexin; anaphylatoxin; bacteriolysis; cattle pague; complement; serotherapy.

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Jules Bordet in Elie Metchnikoff's…

Jules Bordet in Elie Metchnikoff's laboratory.

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Group photo of the 1895 Technical Microbie Course of Institut Pasteur. First on…

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PERSPECTIVE article

100th anniversary of jules bordet's nobel prize: tribute to a founding father of immunology.

$\nJean-Marc Cavaillon$

1 Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
2 Collège de France, Paris, France
3 Institute for Interdisciplinary Innovation in Healthcare (I3h), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium

Introduction

Figure 1 . Jules Bordet in Elie Metchnikoff's laboratory.

The Early Years: From Botany to Immunology

A Founding Father of Immunology at the Institut Pasteur de Paris

Figure 2 . Group photo of the 1895 Technical Microbie Course of Institut Pasteur. First on the left, third raw: J. Bordet; Fifth and sixth from the left, first raw, seated: E. Metchnikoff and E. Roux. J. Danysz is standing just in front of J. Bordet.

Back to Belgium to Lead a New Institut Pasteur

Major discoveries in perspective

Identification of complement and its interaction with antibodies to induce bacteriolysis.

Mechanisms of Hemagglutination and Hemolysis of Sensitized Erythrocytes

Serodiagnostic Tests Based on the Complement-Deviation Principle

Method for Rinderpest Control

Identification of the Agent of Whooping Cough

Other Scientific Contributions

Demonstration of antibody-independent anaphylactoid reactions.

Identification of a Bacteriolytic Activity in Human Milk

Concluding Remarks: Jules Bordet as a Continuous Source of Inspiration for Immunologists

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct and intellectual contribution to the work, and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest Statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Acknowledgments

We thank the photo library of the Institut Pasteur for providing the pictures.

Supplementary Material

The Supplementary Material for this article can be found online at: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fimmu.2019.02114/full#supplementary-material

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Keywords: complement, serotherapy, anaphylatoxin, alexin, bacteriolysis, Metchnikoff, cattle pague, Bordetella pertussis (whooping cough)

Citation: Cavaillon J-M, Sansonetti P and Goldman M (2019) 100th Anniversary of Jules Bordet's Nobel Prize: Tribute to a Founding Father of Immunology. Front. Immunol. 10:2114. doi: 10.3389/fimmu.2019.02114

Received: 02 July 2019; Accepted: 21 August 2019; Published: 11 September 2019.

Reviewed by:

Copyright © 2019 Cavaillon, Sansonetti and Goldman. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Michel Goldman, mgoldman@ulb.ac.be

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Belgian Society for Microbiology

Jules Bordet (1870 – 1961)

With the death of Jules Bordet in 1961, the ”last of the Pasteurians of the great epoch” disappeared. After obtaining his medical degree at Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1892, Bordet moved to the Institut Pasteur, Paris where from 1894 to 1901 he was part of Elie Metchnikkof’s laboratory. In 1895 he discovered that two components of blood serum are responsible for the destruction of bacterial cells (bacteriolysis): one is a heat-stable specific substance found only in animals already immune to the bacterium (antibodies); the other is a heat-sensitive substance found in all animals and was named alexin (later on called complement). Bordet thus deciphered the mode of destruction of bacteria in vaccinated subjects. After a mission on behalf of the Transvaal to study rinderpest (where he met a German mission led by Robert Koch), Bordet worked on hemolytic sera and precipitating sera in the Institut Pasteur, which allowed to establish serodiagnostic methods.

In 1900, Bordet returned to Brussels where he became director of a new antirabies and bacteriological institute that became the Institut Pasteur du Brabant (with special permission of Madame Pasteur) in 1908.

Papers published in that period were devoted to :

– Studies of the antigen-antibody reaction; – The discovery of the whooping cough agent (1906) in his young daughter who suffered from this infectious disease (work in collaboration with this brother-in-law Octave Gengou); – Avian diphtery; – The description of the agent of the bovine pleuropneumonia; – Studies about the complement-fixation testing methods, allowing the development of serological tests for syphilis (specifically, the development of the Wassermann test by August von Wassermann; the same technique is used today in serologic testing for countless other diseases).; – Studies on bacteriophages.

He was also professor of bacteriology at the Free University of Brussels (ULB).

The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to him in 1919 for his discoveries relating to immunity.

The agent of the whooping cough disease was later (1952) called Bordetella pertussis . The genus Bordetella belongs to the Betaproteobacteria (Burkholderiales, Alcaligenaceae). Various Bordetella species were recently fully sequenced at the genome level and provided interesting specific features with other genera of interest in the Burkholderiales ( Alcaligenes, Cupriavidus, Ralstonia, Delftia, Comamonas, Burkholderia… )

His name was also given to a Main-belt Asteroid discovered on May 3, 1997 by E. W. Elst at the European Southern Observatory (9447 Julesbordet, 1997 JJ18).

This “Portrait de Jules Bordet” by Belgian surrealist painter Paul Delvaux was requested in 1950 by Albert Claude when he was appointed a scientific director of the Institut Jules Bordet.

To discover the numerous contributions to Jules Bordet in the field of microbiology please also read this article published in 1962 in Journal of General Microbiology (Beumer J., 1962. Jules Bordet 1870–1961. J. Gen. Microbiol. 29 :1–13).

Please, also note a recent publication in Frontiers in Immunology : 100th Anniversary of Jules Bordet’s Nobel Prize: Tribute to a Founding Father of Immunology

Max Mergeay & Laurence Van Melderen

Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet

-
Soignies, Belgium
-

unspecified
Buried,

Male
White
Straight

Belgium
Researched antibodies and antigens

Jules Bordet's experiments helped establish the basics of immunology -- that that the body creates antibodies in a defensive response to certain antigens. With another Belgian bacteriologist, Octave Gengou, Bordet developed the complement-fixation reaction, a breakthrough which allowed to develop the Wassermann test to diagnosis syphilis. The same basic principles led to diagnostic tests for typhoid fever, carbuncle, and hog cholera. Bordet and Gengou discovered , the microbe that causes whooping cough, leading to development of a vaccination against that deadly disease. Bordet also conducted important studies on the coagulation of blood, and discovered , which causes infectious bronchitis. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1919.

Charles Bordet (school teacher, b. 1834)
Célestine Vandenabeele Bordet
Charles Bordet (physician)
Marthe Levoz Bordet (m. 1899, d. Sep-1961)
Paul Bordet (bacteriologist)
Simone Bordet Craps (m. Maurice Craps, professor of dermatology)
Marguerite Bordet Govaerts (m. Jean Govaerts, professor of surgery)

High School: Athénée Royal de Bruxelles, Soignies, Belgium (now Athénée Royal Jules Bordet)
Medical School:
Scholar: Pasteur Institute, Paris (1894-1901)
Administrator: Pasteur Institute of Brussels (1901-40)
Professor:

1938
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Jules Bordet - Nobel Lecture

Jules Bordet

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Une exposition en l’honneur de Jules Bordet à l’Université Libre de
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COMMENTS

100th Anniversary of Jules Bordet's Nobel Prize: Tribute to a Founding Father of Immunology
Jules Bordet was undoubtedly influenced by the ingenious studies of his brother on chemotactism (6, 7) when he started himself to investigate chemotactism of gametes of algae at the Botanical Institute of the Université libre de Bruxelles ... Through an extensive series of experiments, Bordet demonstrated that heat-stable (56°C for 30 min ...
The American Association of Immunologists
Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet was born in Soignies, Belgium, on June 13, 1870, Bordet grew up in Brussels, where his father, a teacher, relocated the family in 1874. Bordet developed an interest in chemistry while in secondary school and purportedly carried out dangerous chemical experiments in the makeshift laboratory he set up in the ...
Jules Bordet
serological test. Jules Bordet (born June 13, 1870, Soignies, Belg.—died April 6, 1961, Brussels) was a Belgian physician, bacteriologist, and immunologist who received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1919 for his discovery of factors in blood serum that destroy bacteria; this work was vital to the diagnosis and treatment of ...
Jules Bordet
Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet (/ b ɔːr ˈ d eɪ /; French pronunciation: [ʒyl ʒɑ̃ batist vɛ̃sɑ̃ bɔʁdɛ]; 13 June 1870 - 6 April 1961) was a Belgian immunologist and microbiologist.The bacterial genus Bordetella is named after him. The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to him in 1919 for his discoveries relating to immunity.
PDF Development of the Complement Fixation Test: Jules Bordet
Jules Bordet was born in 1870 and was raised in Brussels, Belgium as the second son of Charles Bordet, a primary school teacher. Bordet became interested in chemistry and eventually ... Bordet's experiments set the basis for humoral immunity: a highly ironic outcome viewed from the perspective as Metchnikoff's protégé.
Jules Bordet (1870-1961)
In 1906 this led to the widely used serum diagnosis test for syphilis developed by Wassermann, hence the name Bordet-Wassermann reaction. Jules Bordet was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1919. institutpasteur_jules-bordet.jpg "For his discoveries relating to immunity."In 1894 Jules Bordet joined the laboratory of Ilya Mechni.
Jules Bordet (1870-1961): a bridge between early and modern ...
Jules Bordet, a pioneering immunologist, lived until the dawn of molecular immunology. He was born in Belgium in 1870, obtained a medical degree in 1892, worked at l'Institut Pasteur in Paris from 1894 to 1901 and then established the Pasteur Institute of Brabant in Brussels. Before World War I, Bor …
Jules Bordet (1870-1961): a bridge between early and modern immunology
Jules Bordet, a pioneering immunologist, lived until the dawn of molecular immunology. He was born in Belgium in 1870, obtained a medical degree in 1892, worked at l'Institut Pasteur in Paris from 1894 to 1901 and then established the Pasteur Institute of Brabant in Brussels. Before World War I, Bordet found that complement binds to antibody-antigen complexes regardless of the antigen or ...
PDF Jules Bordet (1870-1961): Pioneer of immunology
Pioneer of immunology. Jonathan Dworkin1, MD, Siang Yong Tan2, MD, JDAt the time when Jules Bordet began his ground- breaking experiments at the Pasteur Institute, the field of immunolo. y was shrouded in pseudoscientific uncertainty. The lifting of this veil, through the persistent and patient process of experimentation, was Bordet's gre.
Immunology's foundation: the 100-year anniversary of the Nobel Prize to
In 1878, he did his first experiment on the uptake of foreign material by adding a crystalline dye to cultures of a turbelarian worm. ... (1860-1917) and Jules Bordet 39,40,41 ...
Jules Bordet
Jules Bordet received his Nobel Prize one year later, in 1920. Prize share: 1/1 . Work . Our immune system protects us from attacks by microorganisms and poisonous substances. The blood includes factors or bodies that destroy bacteria. Through studies of cholera in 1896, Jules Bordet showed that this depends on the collaboration of two types of ...
Jules Bordet (1870-1961): Pioneer of immunology
Dworkin J, Tan SY Correspondence: Prof Tan Siang Yong, [email protected] SUMMARY At the time when Jules Bordet began his groundbreaking experiments at the Pasteur Institute, the field of immunology was shrouded in pseudoscientific uncertainty. The lifting of this veil, through the persistent and patient process of experimentation, was Bordet's great contribution to medicine in the 20th century.
Jules Bordet, the Discoverer of
In fact, Jules Bordet was a Belgian scientist and was affiliated with the faculty of medicine at the Free University of Brussels. He can be considered the "father" of the Belgian microbiology school. He also researched syphilis, and his "réaction de Bordet-Wasserman" has been the leading nontreponemal test for syphilis for a long time. ...
Jules Bordet
Jules Bordet was born in Soignies, Belgium, on June 13, 1870. He was educated in Brussels where he graduated as Doctor of Medicine in 1892. In 1894 he went to Paris to work at the Pasteur Institute until 1901 when he returned to Belgium to found the Pasteur Institute, Brussels. He has been Director of the Belgian Institute since its inception ...
(PDF) Jules Bordet (1870-1961): a bridge between early and modern
Jules Bordet, a pioneering immunologist, lived until the dawn of molecular immunology. He was born in Belgium in 1870, obtained a medical degree in 1892, worked at l'Institut Pasteur in Paris from ...
100th Anniversary of Jules Bordet's Nobel Prize: Tribute to a ...
The 100th Anniversary of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1919 awarded to Jules Bordet offers the opportunity to underline the contributions of this Belgian doctor to the blooming of immunology at the end of the nineteenth century at the Institut Pasteur de Paris. It is also the occasion to …
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1919
Jules Bordet received his Nobel Prize one year later, in 1920. During the selection process in 1919, the Nobel Committee for Physiology or Medicine decided that none of the year's nominations met the criteria as outlined in the will of Alfred Nobel. According to the Nobel Foundation's statutes, the Nobel Prize can in such a case be reserved ...
Jules Bordet
Bordet, Jules (1870-1961) Belgian physician Jules Bordet [1] ... In a series of experiments conducted later, Bordet also learned that injecting red blood cells from one animal species (rabbit cells in the initial experiments) into another species (guinea pigs) caused the serum of the second species to quickly destroy the red cells of the first. ...
Frontiers
1 Institut Pasteur, Paris, France; 2 Collège de France, Paris, France; 3 Institute for Interdisciplinary Innovation in Healthcare (I3h), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Brussels, Belgium; The 100th Anniversary of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1919 awarded to Jules Bordet offers the opportunity to underline the contributions of this Belgian doctor to the blooming of immunology at ...
Jules Bordet (1870
With the death of Jules Bordet in 1961, the "last of the Pasteurians of the great epoch" disappeared. After obtaining his medical degree at Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1892, Bordet moved to the Institut Pasteur, Paris where from 1894 to 1901 he was part of Elie Metchnikkof's laboratory. In 1895 he discovered that two… Continue reading Jules Bordet (1870 - 1961)
Jules Bordet
Jules Bordet's experiments helped establish the basics of immunology -- that that the body creates antibodies in a defensive response to certain antigens. With another Belgian bacteriologist, Octave Gengou, Bordet developed the complement-fixation reaction, a breakthrough which allowed August von Wassermann to develop the Wassermann test to ...
Jules Bordet
No Lecture was delivered by Professor J. Bordet. To cite this section MLA style: Jules Bordet - Nobel Lecture. NobelPrize.org. Nobel Prize Outreach AB 2024.

100th Anniversary of Jules Bordet's Nobel Prize: Tribute to a Founding Father of Immunology

Philippe Sansonetti

Michel Goldman

Associated Data

Introduction

The Early Years: From Botany to Immunology

A Founding Father of Immunology at the Institut Pasteur de Paris

Back to Belgium to Lead a New Institut Pasteur

Major discoveries in perspective

Mechanisms of Hemagglutination and Hemolysis of Sensitized Erythrocytes

Serodiagnostic Tests Based on the Complement-Deviation Principle

Method for Rinderpest Control

Identification of the Agent of Whooping Cough

Other Scientific Contributions

Identification of a Bacteriolytic Activity in Human Milk

Concluding Remarks: Jules Bordet as a Continuous Source of Inspiration for Immunologists

Author Contributions

Conflict of Interest Statement

Acknowledgments

Supplementary Material

Jules Bordet, M.D.

Brief Bio

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

Awards and Honors

Institutional/Biographical Links

Jules Bordet

Jules Bordet (1870-1961)

"For his discoveries relating to immunity."

Immunology's foundation: the 100-year anniversary of the Nobel Prize to Paul Ehrlich and Elie Metchnikoff

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Jules Bordet (1870-1961): Pioneer of immunology

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Jules Bordet, the Discoverer of Bordetella pertussis: The Father of Belgian Microbiology?

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100th Anniversary of Jules Bordet's Nobel Prize: Tribute to a Founding Father of Immunology

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PERSPECTIVE article

Introduction

The Early Years: From Botany to Immunology

A Founding Father of Immunology at the Institut Pasteur de Paris

Back to Belgium to Lead a New Institut Pasteur

Major discoveries in perspective

Mechanisms of Hemagglutination and Hemolysis of Sensitized Erythrocytes

Serodiagnostic Tests Based on the Complement-Deviation Principle

Method for Rinderpest Control

Identification of the Agent of Whooping Cough

Other Scientific Contributions

Identification of a Bacteriolytic Activity in Human Milk

Concluding Remarks: Jules Bordet as a Continuous Source of Inspiration for Immunologists

Author Contributions

Conflict of Interest Statement

Acknowledgments

Supplementary Material

Jules Bordet (1870 – 1961)

Max Mergeay & Laurence Van Melderen

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Jules Bordet

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