Metschnikoff, ilya ilyich

(¤ 1845, † 1916) Zoologist, working in Odessa, St. Petersburg, Messina and Paris.

• Born in 1845 in Ivanovka, a small village near Kharkov (Ukraine), he studied zoology and natural sciences at Kharkov University from the age of 17. Metschnikoff published his first scientific paper "Some Facts from the Life of Infusoria" at the age of 18. In 1864, at the age of 19, he completed his studies and worked on studies of marine fauna on Helgoland. From there he went to the University of Giessen, where under Karl Rudolf Leuckart, the founder of modern parasitology, he worked on the digestion of tapeworms and roundworms. Later he followed Leuckart first to the University of Göttingen, but then he had a hard time with him, as Leuckart published several key publications of Metschnikoff under his name alone. He later moved to the University of Munich, where he worked under von Siebold. Metschnikoff finally wrote his doctoral thesis on the embryonic development of the cuttlefish Sepiola and Crustacea Nelalia in Naples. In 1867 Metschnikoff returned to his home country, defended his dissertation and became first a lecturer at the Novorossisk University in Odessa, later also a lecturer at the University of St. Petersburg. In 1870 he was appointed titular professor of zoology and comparative anatomy at the University of Odessa.
• In 1873, Metschnikoff, due to the death of his first wife Ludmilla Feodorovitch, who died of TB after a long illness, and because of health problems, attempted suicide by taking an overdose of opium. Metschnikoff survived, overcame his personal problems and remarried in 1875. In 1880 his second wife became seriously ill with typhoid fever and Metschnikoff again attempted suicide, this time by deliberately infecting himself with the pathogens of the endemic relapsing fever during an experiment. He fell very seriously ill, but survived again and nasalized.
• In 1882 he left Odessa and took a job in a private laboratory in Messina. Here he continued to work on studies in comparative embryology and discovered the phenomenon of phagocytosis in larvae of starfish.
• In 1883 Metschnikoff returned from Messina to Odessa. On the return journey his way led him to Vienna to the famous zoologist of the Viennese School, Prof. Claus, who in turn suggested that the phagocytes observed by Metschnikoff should be called "phagocytes". In 1883 the first publication on phagocytosis followed.
• In 1886 Metschnikoff became head of a bacteriological institute at the University of Odessa and worked on a vaccine against rabies.
• In 1888 Metschnikoff left Odessa and became laboratory manager at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. Here he continued to work on his theory of cellular immunity. In 1908 he received the Nobel Prize for Physiology and Medicine together with Paul Ehrlich in recognition of his services to the immune system.
• In addition to his numerous and comprehensive works on immunology, embryology and comparative biology, Metschnikoff proved that syphilis can be transmitted from humans to apes. He also turned to studies on ageing processes and recommended the use of acidified milk products to reduce the multiplication of harmful intestinal bacteria and their toxic products and to strengthen the immune system. In his core statement, this approach is still the basis for the use of probiotics today, e.g. in atopic eczema.
• In 1916 Metschnikoff died of a heart disease. The urn with his ashes is kept in the library of the Louis Pasteur Institute in Paris.