Emil Adolf von Behring

Infobox Scientist
name = Emil Adolf von Behring


imagesize = 200px
caption = Emil Adolf von Behring
birth_date = March 15, 1854
birth_place = Hansdorf
death_date = March 31, 1917
death_place = Marburg, Hesse-Nassau
nationality = Germany
field = Physiology, immunology
work_institutions =
alma_mater =
doctoral_advisor =
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known_for = Diphtheria vaccine
prizes = Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1901)

Emil Adolf von Behring (March 15, 1854 – March 31, 1917) was a German physiologist who received the 1901 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

Biography

Behring was born Adolf Emil Behring in Hansdorf, Kreis Rosenberg, Province of Prussia.

Between 1874 and 1878 he studied medicine at the Akademie für das militärärztliche Bildungswesen, Berlin. He was mainly a military doctor and then became Professor of Hygienics within the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Marburg (against the initial strenuous opposition of the faculty council), a position he would hold for the rest of his life.

Behring was the discoverer of diphtheria antitoxin and attained a great reputation by that means and by his contributions to the study of immunity. He won the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901 for developing a serum therapy against diphtheria (this was worked on with Emile Roux) and tetanus. The former had been a scourge of the population, especially children, whereas the other was a leading cause of death in wars, killing the wounded. At the International Tuberculosis Congress in 1905 he announced that he had discovered "a substance proceeding from the virus of tuberculosis." This substance, which he designated "T C", plays the important part in the immunizing action of Professor Behring's "bovivaccine", which prevents bovine tuberculosis.

Behring died at Marburg, Hessen-Nassau, on March 31, 1917. His name survives in Dade Behring, the world's largest company dedicated solely to clinical diagnostics, in CSL Behring a manufacturer of plasma-derived biotherapies, in Behringwerke AG in Marburg, in Novartis Behring and in the Emil von Behring Prize of the University of Marburg, the highest endowed medicine award in Germany.

His Nobel Prize medal, is now kept on display at the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva.

Publications

* "Die Blutserumtherapie" (1892)
* "Bekämpfung der Infektionskrankheiten" (1894)
* "Beiträge zur experimentellen Therapie" (1906)

References

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External links