Bordet, Jules

Bordet, Jules (zhül bôrdā`), 1870–1961, Belgian serologist and immunologist, M.D. Univ. of Brussels, 1892. He became director of the Pasteur Institute in Brussels in 1901 and professor at the Univ. of Brussels in 1907. With Octave Gengou he devised (1900) the technique of the complement-fixation reaction (applied by Wassermann to the diagnosis of syphilis) and discovered (1906) the bacillus of whooping cough. For his work in immunity he received the 1919 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.

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Bordet, Jules (-Jean-Baptiste–Vincent)

(born June 13, 1870, Soignies, Belg.—died April 6, 1961, Brussels) Belgian bacteriologist and immunologist. In 1895 he found that two blood serum components cause bacteriolysis (bacterial cell-wall rupture), one a heat-stable antibody in animals immune to the bacterium and the other a heat-sensitive complement in all animals. In 1898 he discovered hemolysis (rupture of foreign erythrocytes), a similar process that also requires complement. This research was vital to the foundation of serology, the study of immune reactions in body fluids. His work with Octave Gengou led to serological tests for many diseases, including typhoid, tuberculosis, and syphilis (the Wassermann test). In 1906 they discovered Bordetella pertussis, which causes whooping cough. In 1919 Bordet received a Nobel Prize.