Albert Calmette
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Albert Calmette | |
Albert Calmette
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Born | July 12, 1863 Nice, France |
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Died | October 29, 1933 Paris |
Nationality | France |
Fields | bacteriologist |
Institutions | Pasteur Institute |
Known for | Bacillus Calmette-Guérin antivenin |
Léon Charles Albert Calmette (July 12, 1863 – October 29, 1933) was a French physician, bacteriologist and immunologist, and an important officer of the Pasteur Institute. He discovered the Bacillus Calmette-Guérin, an attenuated form of Mycobacterium used in the BCG vaccine against tuberculosis. He also developed the first antivenin 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 in Hong Kong, where he studied malaria and got his doctoral degree in 1886 on this subject. He was then assigned to Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, where he arrived in 1887. After, he served in West Africa, in Gabon and French Congo, where he researched malaria, sleeping sickness and pellagra.
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 the Pasteur Institute at Saigon (French Indochina), in 1891. There, he dedicated himself to the nascent field of toxicology, which had important connections to immunology, and he studied snake and bee venom, plant poisons and curare. He also organized the production of vaccines against smallpox and rabies and carried out research on cholera, and the fermentation of opium and rice.
In 1894, he came back to France again and develop the first antivenoms for snake bites using immune sera from vaccinated horses (Calmette's serum). Work in this field was later taken up by Brazilian physician Vital Brazil, in São Paulo at the Instituto Butantan, who developed several other antivenoms against snakes, scorpions and spiders.
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 to Portugal to study and to help fight an epidemic at Oporto.
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 in Algiers (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.
[edit] 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 against tuberculosis, which, at the time, was a giant killer disease. The German microbiologist Robert Koch had discovered, in 1882, that the tubercle bacillus, 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 a bile-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 the Charité 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 by Henriette Caillaux, socialite wife of Finance Minister Joseph Caillaux.
[edit] 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.
- Hawgood, Barbara J (2007), “Albert Calmette (1863-1933) and Camille Guérin (1872-1961): the C and G of BCG vaccine.”, Journal of medical biography 15 (3): 139-46, 2007 Aug, PMID:17641786, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17641786>
- Daniel, T M (2005), “Leon Charles Albert Calmette and BCG vaccine.”, Int. J. Tuberc. Lung Dis. 9 (9): 944-5, 2005 Sep, PMID:16158885, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16158885>
- Milleliri, J M (2005), “[Unpublished letter from Albert Calmette to Marcel Léger. A new mission for China?]”, Médecine tropicale : revue du Corps de santé colonial 65 (2): 135, 2005, PMID:16038352, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16038352>
- Hawgood, B J (1999), “Doctor Albert Calmette 1863-1933: founder of antivenomous serotherapy and of antituberculous BCG vaccination.”, Toxicon 37 (9): 1241-58, 1999 Sep, PMID:10400286, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10400286>
- Oehme, J (1993), “[Albert Calmette (1863-1933)]”, Kinderkrankenschwester : Organ der Sektion Kinderkrankenpflege / Deutsche Gesellschaft für Sozialpädiatrie und Deutsche Gesellschaft für Kinderheilkunde 12 (8): 288, 1993 Aug, PMID:8398793, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8398793>
- Bendiner, E (1992), “Albert Calmette: a vaccine and its vindication.”, Hosp. Pract. (Off. Ed.) 27 (10A): 113-6, 119-22, 125 passim, 1992 Oct 30, PMID:1400676, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1400676>
- Fillastre, C (1986), “[Homage to Albert Calmette]”, Dev. Biol. Stand. 58 ( Pt A): 3-7, 1986, PMID:3297869, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3297869>
- Dodin, A, “[Albert Calmette. President of the Société de Pathologie Exotique]”, Bulletin de la Société de pathologie exotique et de ses filiales 76 (3): 211-4, PMID:6354491, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/6354491>
- Birth, C A (1974), “Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG). Léon Charles Albert Calmette 1863-1933 Jean-Marie Camille Guérin 1872-1961.”, The Practitioner 212 (1269): 391-2, 1974 Mar, PMID:4614251, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4614251>
- Gelinas, J A (1973), “Albert Calmette. The Saigon years 1891-1893: A historical review.”, Military medicine 138 (11): 730-3, 1973 Nov, PMID:4201992, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4201992>
- Cossairt, J (1973), “Stamps in radiology (Leon Charles Albert Calmette).”, Radiology 107 (3): 536, 1973 Jun, PMID:4581661, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4581661>
- Togunova, A I (1971), “[Half a century since the development and practical application of live BCG vaccine (Albert Calmette), (Camille Guérin)]”, Problemy tuberkuleza 49 (4): 1-6, 1971, PMID:4944950, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4944950>
- Deschiens, R, “[Homage to Madame Albert Calmette]”, Bulletin de la Société de pathologie exotique et de ses filiales 59 (6): 933-6, PMID:4868558, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/4868558>
- DUJARRICDELARIVIERE, R, “[EULOGY FOR CHARLES-ALBERT CALMETTE (1863-1933).]”, Bull. Acad. Natl. Med. 148: 648-55, PMID:14262487, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14262487>
- ROCCHIETTA, S (1964), “[ALBERT CALMETTE (1863-1933).]”, Minerva Med. 55: 1432-4, 1964 Oct 24, PMID:14225467, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14225467>
- “"NO TRUCE FOR TUBERCULOSIS". 4. THE BIRTH OF BCG. ALBERT CALMETTE AND CAMILLE GUERIN.”, Indian journal of medical sciences 18: 418-9, 1964, 1964 Jul, PMID:14179613, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14179613>
- TOGUNOVA, A I (1964), “[THE LIFE AND WORK OF ALBERT CALMETTE.]”, Vestn. Akad. Med. Nauk SSSR 19: 69-74, 1964, PMID:14255874, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14255874>
- “[CELEBRATION OF THE CENTENARY OF THE BIRTH OF ALBERT CALMETTE (1863-1933).]”, Semaine des hôpitaux: informations 42: 5-7, 1963, 1963 Nov 26, PMID:14095595, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14095595>
- LUGOSI, L (1963), “[ALBERT CALMETTE AND CAMILLE GUERIN.]”, Gyermekgyógyászat : az Orvosegészségügyi Szakszervezet Gyermekorvos Szakcsoportjának folyóirata = Pediatriia 14: 321-2, 1963 Nov, PMID:14097501, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14097501>
- VANBENEDEN, J (1963), “[ALBERT CALMETTE. AN EXCITING AND PRODUCTIVE CAREER.]”, Revue médicale de Liège 18: 669-74, 1963 Nov 1, PMID:14095568, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14095568>
- DE ASSIS, A (1963), “[ALBERT CALMETTE. (APROPOS OF THEFIRST CENTENARY OF HIS BIRTH)]”, Hospital 64: 1-11, 1963 Jul, PMID:14048912, <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14048912>
[edit] External links
- León Charles Albert Calmette. WhoNamedIt site.
- Albert Calmette (1863-1933). Repéres Chronologiques. Institut Pasteur, Paris (In French).