Structural Biochemistry Tutorial Handout : For L.2 students in biotechnology and biology

Abstract

§ Around 6000 BC, practices of deliberate transmission of smallpox existed in China as a preventive measure. This technique, known as variolation, involved collecting pus from a mildly infected patient and inoculating it into a healthy individual using a needle. § Variolation became known in England around 1722, notably through the wife of the British ambassador to Constantinople, who had her son inoculated using this method. It subsequently spread throughout Europe in the following years. § On May 14, 1796, Edward Jenner collected material from a pustule of a young woman infected with cowpox and inoculated it into an eight-year-old boy. After the boy recovered from the mild infection, Jenner exposed him to smallpox. The boy did not develop severe symptoms. Edward Jenner is now considered the founder of immunology. § Another major milestone in immunology was the development of a rabies vaccine by Louis Pasteur in 1885. On July 6, 1885, Pasteur vaccinated Joseph Meister, a nine-year-old boy who had been bitten by a rabid dog two days earlier. Joseph Meister became the first person to survive rabies. Within one year, 350 individuals were vaccinated, and none died from the disease. § Robert Koch identified the causative agent of tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis). His work laid the foundation for Calmette and Guérin, who developed the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis. § In 1888, Émile Roux and Alexandre Yersin discovered the diphtheria toxin. § At the beginning of the 20th century, immunology research followed two main directions: