Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov was a biologist and pathologist and one of the founders of comparative pathology and evolutionary embryology. He founded a science school and received a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1908. He was also a member of the French Medical Academy, the Swedish Medical Society, an Honorary Member of the Kyiv University and earned an Honorary PhD at Cambridge University
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| Ilya Mechnikov’s research became a weighty contribution to the fundamental discoveries in immune reactions PHÎÒÎ: PHL |
Wunderkind
Mechnikov was born in the village of Ivanivka in Kupyanskiy County (Kharkiv Oblast) on May 15, 1845. He was the youngest of five children. Mechnikov attended a lyceum in Kharkiv and due to his desire and great passion for learning immediately started school in the second grade. At the age of 16 he wrote an article criticizing a school geology textbook published in a reputable journal in Moscow.
During his years in secondary school Mechnikov attended lectures on comparative anatomy and physiology at the Kharkiv University that reassured him of his future profession. In 1862, he graduated from the lyceum with honors and entered the department of physics and mathematics of the Kharkiv University majoring in natural sciences.
Mechnikov completed his four-year course in two years and graduated in 1864. With the intercession of the prominent surgeon Nikolai Pirogov, who was then the supervisor of the Kyiv educational authority, the talented graduate went to Germany to continue his studies at the expense of the local treasury. In Germany, Mechnikov studied marine fauna on the small North Sea island of Heligoland and then attended the University of Giessen, University of Gettingen and the Munich Academy. For some time he worked in a laboratory in Frankfurt and Naples, where he collaborated with a young zoologist Alexander Kovalevsky. The two scientists were awarded the Karl Ernst von Baer Prize for their joint work on embryology.
In 1867, after Mechnikov defended his thesis at the age of 22, he returned to the Russian Empire to take up the position of associate professor at the new University of Odesa and the next year took up a position at the University of St. Petersburg. There he defended his thesis for a PhD in Zoology. In 1870, he returned to Odesa to take up the appointment of Titular Professor of Zoology and Comparative Anatomy. He lectured at the university for the next 10 years.
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| Under the wing of Louis Pasteur Mechnikov found a “peaceful shelter for conducting his scientific work” PHÎÒÎ: PHL |
“The envy of others is unbearable”
Mechnikov used to say that after terrorists assassinated Tsar Alexander II of Russia in 1881 the “response units mowed down everybody without choosing right or wrong”. Prominent professors were maliciously attacked in the university and the students underwent brutal reprisals.
In 1882 Mechnikov resigned his position at the Odesa University and set up a private laboratory in Messina, Italy to study comparative embryology. After experimenting on the larvae of starfish, he discovered phagocytosis – an amazing phenomenon that was revolutionary in global science.
In 1886, the researcher was invited to return to Odesa and continue his scientific works. Mechnikov accepted the invitation and returned with two young colleagues as the director of a microbiological laboratory (the first in Russian Empire and the second in the world), which later was transformed into the Bacteriological Institute. Stalked by insolent journalists avid for sensations and accusing him of the lack of a specialized medical education (the professor was reproached for “dilettantism”, the “unscientific” nature of his research work and even swindling) Mechnikov once again left Ukraine in 1887. “The envy of others is unbearable,” he said.
At the age of 42 Mechnikov moved to Paris to “find a peaceful shelter for conducting his scientific work”. The French scientist Louis Pasteur offered him such a sanctuary. Pasteur hired Mechnikov as laboratory chief at the Pasteur Institute. Mechnikov worked in conditions of which he dreamt all his life. In 1905, he was promoted to deputy director and worked there for 28 years until his death. Mechnikov’s research works in Paris became a weighty contribution to the number of fundamental discoveries in immune reactions.
Sour milk and longevity
After Mechnikov’s phagocytosis theory gained strong positions in scientific work he started working on other subjects. For example, once he discovered villages in Bulgaria where people lived for 100 years and even longer thanks to drinking sour milk every day. Hence, together with his young colleagues Mechnikov developed a theory that aging is caused by toxic bacteria in the guts and that lactic acid can prolong life. Consequently, Lactobacillus bulgaricus or Bacillus bulgaricus received a decent place among patent medications.
Mechnikov´s studies into the potential life-extending properties of lactic acid bacteria (LAB), inspired Japanese scientist Minoru Shirota to begin investigating the causal relationship between bacteria and good intestinal health, which eventually led to the worldwide marketing of kefir and other fermented milk drinks, or pro-biotics.
Mechnikov received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1908, shared with Paul Ehrlich, for his work on phagocytosis. Karl Merner from the Karolinska Institutet noted in his complimentary address that “Mechnikov initiated modern research in immunology and had a major effect on its further development”.
Mechnikov died in Paris on July 15, 1916 at the age of 71. Ukraine did not forget its prominent son. The Odesa State University, where Mechnikov was a lecturer, was named after him. The Bacteriological Institute founded by the scientist is today the Odesa Scientific and Research Institute of Epidemiology and Embryology and was also named after him. Many streets in Ukrainian cities are named after Mechnikov, including street in the nation’s capital.
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