Metchnikoff, Élie (ālē` mĕch`nĭkôf), 1845–1916, Russian biologist. He studied in Russia and Germany, lectured at the Univ. of Odessa, and, after working with Pasteur in Paris, became (1904) deputy director of the Pasteur Institute there. He introduced the theory of phagocytosis, i.e., that certain white blood cells are able to engulf and destroy harmful substances such as bacteria. For his work on immunity he shared with Paul Ehrlich the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. He developed a theory that lactic-acid bacteria (B. acidophilus) in the digestive tract could, by preventing putrefaction, prolong life; and with P. P. É. Roux he experimented with calomel ointment as a treatment for syphilis. His writings include Immunity in Infectious Diseases (1905) and The Nature of Man (1938).

Bibliography

See biography by O. Metchnikova (1921).

Metchnikoff, Élie

orig. Ilya Ilich Mechnikov

Élie Metchnikoff.

(credit: H. Roger-Viollet)

(born May 16, 1845, near Kharkov, Ukraine, Russian Empire—died July 16, 1916, Paris, France) Russian zoologist and microbiologist. In 1888 Louis Pasteur offered him a post at the Pasteur Institute, and he succeeded Pasteur as director in 1895. Working with starfish, he discovered amoebalike cells in their systems that engulf foreign bodies such as bacteria. He established that phagocytes (as he named these cells, using the Greek for “devouring cells”) are the first line of defense against acute infection in most animals. This phenomenon, now known as phagocytosis, is fundamental to immunology. He shared a 1908 Nobel Prize with Paul Ehrlich.