Emil von Behring was a pioneering German immunologist born on March 15, 1854, in Hansdorf, West Prussia, now part of Poland. He received his medical degree in 1878 from the Friedrich-Wilhelms-Institut, the Prussian army's medical college in Berlin, and subsequently served ten years with the Army Medical Corps. In 1889, he became an assistant at the Institute for Hygiene in Berlin under Robert Koch, the renowned director who would later receive the 1905 Nobel Prize in Medicine. His academic career advanced when he became Professor of Hygiene at Halle in 1894, followed by his appointment as Director of the Institute of Hygiene at the Philipps University of Marburg in 1895, where he would remain for the rest of his professional life.
Von Behring's most groundbreaking contribution was the development of serum therapy, particularly for the treatment of diphtheria, which earned him the distinction of receiving the first Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1901. Collaborating with Shibasaburo Kitasato, he pioneered the concept of passive immunization by demonstrating that blood plasma from immune animals could transfer protective antibodies to non-immune subjects. In 1890, working with Erich Wernicke, he successfully developed the first effective therapeutic serum against diphtheria, a deadly disease that primarily affected children, and subsequently created a therapeutic serum against tetanus. His work established the scientific foundation for antitoxin treatments and revolutionized medical approaches to infectious diseases by introducing the concept of using specific antibodies to neutralize bacterial toxins.
Von Behring's therapeutic innovations had immediate and profound practical applications, earning him the affectionate title of "Children's Savior" for dramatically reducing diphtheria mortality rates. He collaborated extensively with the Hoechst chemical and pharmaceutical company to enable mass production and distribution of diphtheria antitoxin, beginning in 1894, demonstrating his commitment to translating laboratory discoveries into life-saving treatments. His contributions were widely recognized with numerous honors including the French Legion of Honor in 1895, the Nobel Prize in 1901, and being elevated to German nobility with the hereditary title "von" in his name. Beyond his specific discoveries, von Behring's work laid the essential groundwork for modern immunology and established serum therapy as a fundamental approach to treating infectious diseases, leaving a legacy that continues to influence medical science more than a century after his death on March 31, 1917.
