Jean Laigret

Jean Laigret (August 17, 1893 - March 11, 1966) was a French biologist who was born in Blois. For much of his career he was associated with the Pasteur Institute in Brazzaville (1924-1925), Saigon (1927), Dakar (1928), Bamako (1929-1930) and Tunis (1932-1939), (1945-1950). From 1950 until 1960 he was a professor of bacteriology and hygiene at the University of Strasbourg.

Laigret is famous for his development in 1932 of a vaccine against yellow fever. The vaccine was produced from the brains of mice that were infected with the yellow fever virus. Initially he tried the vaccine on patients in Tunis. However, the vaccinated Tunisians developed side-effects such as fever and hemorrhages. Laigret reasoned that the problem was that the size of the dose was too large. When he reduced the size of the dose and vaccinated patients in French West Africa, his vaccine was a success without the harmful side-effects.

References

* [http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,748025,00.html Time Magazine, Mouse Brains v. Yellow Fever]