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Duclaux, Chamberland, Roux, Grancher, and Metchnikoff: the five musketeers of Louis Pasteur

Genes & Immunity volume 20, pages 344–356 (2019)Cite this article

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Abstract

The Institut Pasteur was created, thanks to worldwide generosity with the aim to welcome and treat rabies patients, to provide a place for scientific research and to offer new teaching programs in microbiology. Louis Pasteur invited his main collaborators, who had accompanied him during his previous investigations at École Normale Supérieure, to join him in his new institute. They contributed to the principle discoveries of Pasteur, such as the fight against spontaneous generation, the identification of the ferments of putrefaction, the fight against the silk worm disease, the research on wine and beer, and the set-up of the first vaccines against avian cholera, anthrax, swine erysipelas, and rabies. There were two scientists, Émile Duclaux and Charles Chamberland, and two medical doctors, Émile Roux, and Joseph Grancher. In addition, two Russian scientists were invited to join the Institute and to head a research laboratory, Élie Metchnikoff and Nikolaï Gamaleïa; the later will finally never join the institute.

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Notes

  1. Saint-Petersburg, Odessa, Moscow, Varsaw, Torino, Milano, Palerma, Napoli, Wien, Barcelona, Bucharest, Malta, Constantinople, La Havana, Rio de Janiero, Buenos Aires, Chicago

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Acknowledgements

We thank the phototèque of Institut Pasteur for providing all the pictures but one. For Fig. 5, we thank BIU Santé, Paris for their kind contribution. We thank Orhan Rasid, Emma Patey, and Michael Connor for their collective efforts in English editing.

Funding

This study was funded by the Institut Pasteur.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Experimental Neuropathology Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

    Jean-Marc Cavaillon

  2. Centre de ressources en information scientifique, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France

    Sandra Legout

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  1. Jean-Marc Cavaillon
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Correspondence to Jean-Marc Cavaillon.

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Cavaillon, JM., Legout, S. Duclaux, Chamberland, Roux, Grancher, and Metchnikoff: the five musketeers of Louis Pasteur. Genes Immun 20, 344–356 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41435-019-0064-1

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