- Albert Calmette
Infobox Scientist
name = Albert Calmette
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caption = Albert Calmette
birth_date =July 12 ,1863
birth_place =Nice ,France
death_date =October 29 ,1933
death_place =Paris
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ethnicity =
field = bacteriologist
work_institutions =Pasteur Institute
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known_for =Bacillus Calmette-Guérin antivenin
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footnotes =Léon Charles Albert Calmette (
July 12 ,1863 –October 29 ,1933 ) was a Frenchphysician , bacteriologist and immunologist, and an important officer of thePasteur Institute . He discovered theBacillus Calmette-Guérin , an attenuated form ofMycobacterium used in the BCGvaccine againsttuberculosis . He also developed the firstantivenin for snake venom, the Calmette's serum.Calmette was born in
Nice ,France . He wanted to serve in the Navy and be a physician, so in 1881 he joined the School of Naval Physicians at Brest. He started to serve in 1883 in the Naval Medical Corps inHong Kong , where he studiedmalaria and got his doctoral degree in 1886 on this subject. He was then assigned toSaint-Pierre and Miquelon , where he arrived in 1887. After, he served in West Africa, inGabon andFrench Congo , where he researched malaria,sleeping sickness andpellagra .Upon his return to France in 1890, Calmette met
Louis Pasteur (1822-1895) and Emile Roux (1853-1933), who was his professor in a course on bacteriology. He became an associate and was charged by Pasteur to found and direct a branch of thePasteur Institute atSaigon (French Indochina ), in 1891. There, he dedicated himself to the nascent field oftoxicology , which had important connections toimmunology , and he studiedsnake andbee venom, plantpoison s andcurare . He also organized the production of vaccines againstsmallpox andrabies and carried out research oncholera , and the fermentation ofopium andrice .In 1894, he came back to France again and develop the first
antivenom s for snake bites using immune sera from vaccinated horses ("Calmette's serum"). Work in this field was later taken up byBrazil ian physicianVital Brazil , inSão Paulo at theInstituto Butantan , who developed several other antivenoms against snakes,scorpion s andspider s.He also took part in the development in the first immune serum against the
bubonic plague (black pest), in collaboration with the discoverer of its pathogenic agent, "Yersinia pestis ", by Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943), and went toPortugal to study and to help fight an epidemic atOporto .In 1895, Roux entrusted him with the directorship of the Institute's branch at
Lille , where he was to remain for the next 25 years. In 1909, he helped to found the Institute branch inAlgiers (Algeria ). In 1901, he founded the first antituberculosis dispensary at Lille, and named it after Emile Roux. In 1904, he founded the "Ligue du Nord contre la Tuberculose" (Northern Antituberculosis League), which exists until today. In 1918, he accepted the post of assistant director of the Institute in Paris.Research on tuberculosis
Calmette's main scientific work, which was to bring him worldwide fame and his name permanently attached to the history of
medicine was the attempt to develop a vaccine againsttuberculosis , which, at the time, was a giant killer disease. The German microbiologistRobert Koch had discovered, in 1882, that the tuberclebacillus , "Mycobacterium tuberculosis" was its pathogenic agent, and Louis Pasteur became interested in it, too. In 1906, a veterinarian and immunologist,Camille Guérin , had established that immunity against tuberculosis was associated with the living tubercle bacilli in the blood. Using Pasteur's approach, Calmette investigated how immunity would develop in response to attenuated bovine bacilli injected in animals. This preparation received the name of its two discoverers ("Bacillum Calmette-Guérin", or BCG, for short). Attenuation was achieved by cultivating them in abile -containing substrate, based on idea given by a Norwegian researcher,Kristian Feyer Andvord (1855-1934). From 1908 to 1921, Guérin and Calmette strived to produce less and less virulent strains of the bacillus, by transferring them to successive cultures. Finally, in 1921, they used BCG to successfully vaccine newborn infants in theCharité in Paris.The vaccination program, however, suffered a serious setback when 72 vaccinated children developed tuberculosis in 1930, in
Lübeck ,Germany , due to a contamination of some batches in Germany. Mass vaccination of children was reinstated in many countries after 1932, when new and safer production techniques were implemented. Notwithstanding, Calmette was deeply shaken by the event, dying one year later, in Paris.He was the brother of
Gaston Calmette (1858-1914), the editor of "Le Figaro " who was murdered in 1914 byHenriette Caillaux , socialite wife of Finance MinisterJoseph Caillaux .References
* Bernard, N., and Negre, L. 1940. "Albert Calmette, sa vie, son oeuvre scientifique". Masson et Cie, Paris.
* Calmette, L.C.A. The treatment of animals poisoned with snake venom by the injection of anti-venomous serum. "The Lancet", 1896, 2: 449-450.
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url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17641786
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year=2007
title=Albert Calmette (1863-1933) and Camille Guérin (1872-1961): the C and G of BCG vaccine.
volume=15
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periodical=Journal of medical biography
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volume=65
issue=2
periodical=Médecine tropicale : revue du Corps de santé colonial
pages=135
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url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10400286
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publication-date=1999 Sep
year=1999
title=Doctor Albert Calmette 1863-1933: founder of antivenomous serotherapy and of antituberculous BCG vaccination.
volume=37
issue=9
periodical=Toxicon
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publication-date=1993 Aug
year=1993
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volume=12
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periodical=Kinderkrankenschwester : Organ der Sektion Kinderkrankenpflege / Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozialpädiatrie und Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kinderheilkunde
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volume=27
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periodical=Hosp. Pract. (Off. Ed.)
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publication-date=1986
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title= [Albert Calmette. President of the Société de Pathologie Exotique]
volume=76
issue=3
periodical=Bulletin de la Société de pathologie exotique et de ses filiales
pages=211-4
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id =PMID :4614251
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4614251
last=Birth
first=C A
publication-date=1974 Mar
year=1974
title=Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG). Léon Charles Albert Calmette 1863-1933 Jean-Marie Camille Guérin 1872-1961.
volume=212
issue=1269
periodical=The Practitioner
pages=391-2
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url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4201992
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first=J A
publication-date=1973 Nov
year=1973
title=Albert Calmette. The Saigon years 1891-1893: A historical review.
volume=138
issue=11
periodical=Military medicine
pages=730-3
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publication-date=1973 Jun
year=1973
title=Stamps in radiology (Leon Charles Albert Calmette).
volume=107
issue=3
periodical=Radiology
pages=536
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url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4944950
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publication-date=1971
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title= [Half a century since the development and practical application of live BCG vaccine (Albert Calmette), (Camille Guérin)]
volume=49
issue=4
periodical=Problemy tuberkuleza
pages=1-6
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id =PMID :4868558
url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4868558
last=Deschiens
first=R
publication-date=
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title= [Homage to Madame Albert Calmette]
volume=59
issue=6
periodical=Bulletin de la Société de pathologie exotique et de ses filiales
pages=933-6
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url= http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14262487
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volume=148
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publication-date=1964 Jul
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periodical=Indian journal of medical sciences
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publication-date=1963 Nov 26
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volume=42
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publication-date=1963 Nov
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title= [ALBERT CALMETTE AND CAMILLE GUERIN.]
volume=14
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publication-date=1963 Nov 1
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title= [ALBERT CALMETTE. AN EXCITING AND PRODUCTIVE CAREER.]
volume=18
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periodical=Revue médicale de Liège
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pages=1-11External links
* [http://www.whonamedit.com/doctor.cfm/2413.html León Charles Albert Calmette] . WhoNamedIt site.
* [http://www.pasteur.fr/infosci/archives/cal0.html Albert Calmette (1863-1933)] . Repéres Chronologiques. Institut Pasteur, Paris (In French).
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