Louis Pasteur

Chloe • Ingrid • Ashley

● Summary of biographical information

↝ Louis Pasteur: December 27, 1822 – September 28, 1895) was a French
biologist, microbiologist and chemist renowned for his discoveries of the
principles of vaccination, microbial fermentation and pasteurization.
↝ Early Education: Pasteur was born into a poor family. Surprisingly, he was only
an average student in his early years, but he was gifted in drawing and
painting. After attending primary school in Arbois, where his family had
moved, and secondary school in nearby Besançon, he earned his bachelor of
arts degree (1840) and bachelor of science degree (1842) at the Royal College
of Besançon.
↝ In 1843 Pasteur was admitted to the École Normale Supérieure (a teachers’
college in Paris), where he attended lectures by French chemist Jean-
Baptiste-André Dumas and became Dumas’s teaching assistant. Pasteur
obtained his master of science degree in 1845 and then acquired an advanced
degree in physical sciences. He later earned his doctorate in sciences in 1847.
Pasteur was appointed professor of physics at the Dijon Lycée (secondary
school) in 1848 but shortly thereafter accepted a position as professor of
chemistry at the University of Strasbourg.
↝ Basically, after graduating from university, he was a teacher in chemistry and
physics
● Accomplishments
↝ He researched on molecular asymmetry
↝ Germ theory of fermentation
↝ Pasteur effect
↝ Pasteurization
↝ Spontaneous generation
↝ Work with silkworms
↝ Vaccine development
● Description of disease and harm it causes
↝ Rabies - a viral disease that causes inflammation of the brain in humans and
other mammals
↝ Causes - caused by lyssaviruses, including the rabies virus and Australian bat
lyssavirus; an infected animal bites or scratches a human or other animal
↝ Early symptoms - fever and tingling at site of exposure
↝ Other symptoms - violent movements, uncontrolled excitement, fear of
water, an inability to move parts of the body, confusion, and loss of
consciousness
 ↝ Severity - result almost always ends in death
↝ Time period - time period between contracting the disease and the start of
symptoms is usually 1-3 months, can vary from less than one week to more
than one year; depends on the distance the virus must travel along peripheral
nerves to reach the central nervous system
● How they made their discovery
↝ Intentional
↝ Developing
■ Put the virus into rabbits
■ Weakened it by drying the affected nerve tissue
↝ First human test (by accident)
■ 9 year old got bitten by rabid dog
■ No other choice, but to try the vaccine
■ It worked!!!
■ Pasteur wasn’t a licensed physician at the time and could’ve been
prosecuted if the vaccine failed. Luckily it worked yayyyy!
↝ In order to attenuate the invisible agent, he desiccated the spinal cords of infected
animals until the preparation became almost nonvirulent. He realized later that, instead
of creating an attenuated form of the agent, his treatment had actually neutralized it.
(Pasteur perceived the neutralizing effect as a killing effect on the agent, since he
suspected that the agent was a living organism.) Thus, rather unknowingly, he had
produced, instead of attenuated live microorganisms, a neutralized agent and opened the
way for the development of a second class of vaccines, known as inactivated vaccines.

● What treatments/changes came about as a result of their discoveries/work

↝
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