History of Immunology

Many thanks Joachim! Great NK day indeed!

💉✨ In 1967, a needle-free injection method called the jet injector was widely used for mass vaccinations.
This device delivered vaccines through a high-pressure stream that penetrated the skin without a traditional needle. ✅

🌍 It played a big role in large immunization drives like the smallpox eradication campaign, helping healthcare workers vaccinate hundreds of people quickly.

⚠️ However, safety concerns arose later — improper sterilization between uses sometimes led to the spread of bloodborne diseases. By the 1990s, most jet injectors were replaced with safer single-use needles.
🚀 Today, new and safer needle-free systems are being developed again!

#healthhistory #vaccination #jetinjector #needlefree #medicalinnovation #publichealth #medicalhistory #healthcare #doctorknowledge #diseaseprevention #doctorpreneur #healthfacts

How the measles virus was trapped and tamed in vaccinology’s wild West.

The scientists who fought pertussis, and what they lost before they won.

Timeline of major research and development milestones related to the microbiome

Here’s a snapshot of how we got from Antonie van Leeuwenhoek’s first look at microbes to the "multi-omics era" shaping personalized medicine today:

📜 1670s – Antonie van Leeuwenhoek observes microorganisms for the first time.
🌱 1729 – Pier Antonio Micheli pioneers fungal classification.
🦠 1880s–1900s – Robert Koch formalizes germ theory; Alfred Nissle isolates the first probiotic E. coli strain.
💊 1928 – Alexander Fleming discovers antibiotics.
🧫 1958 – Ben Eiseman reports success with fecal microbiota transplants (FMT) in treating C. difficile.
🧪 1972 – First germ-free mice raised to study host–microbe interactions.
🧬 1995 – First complete bacterial genome sequenced (Haemophilus influenzae).
🌍 2007 – Human Microbiome Project launched.
🔄 2013 – FMT enters modern clinical practice for recurrent C. difficile.
🧠 2016–2020 – Studies link microbiota to cancer therapy response, depression, and gut–brain signaling.
🧷 2022 – Metagenome-assembled genomes expand our catalog of microbial diversity; dietary flavonoids shown to alleviate depressive symptoms.

https://lnkd.in/gqrz3nUD

Happy 100th birthday to my PhD advisor Jack Leonard Strominger!!! 100 years of life. 74 years of running a lab. Words cannot describe how much of an inspiration you are to me and so many others. Carpe diem!

Aujourd’hui, retour sur une page méconnue de l’histoire de la vaccination 💉 et un espoir concret contre les bactéries ultra-résistantes grâce à la technologie ARNm, accélérée par le Covid.
Mais RFK Jr, lui, préfère geler les financements.
Résultat : des vies en danger.

L’obscurantisme tue. Littéralement.

Before the development of the polio vaccine, the world witnessed the devastating effects of the polio pandemic, especially on children. Polio, a viral disease, often led to paralysis of the respiratory muscles, making it extremely difficult for affected children to breathe. For many, the disease was a death sentence, as their weakened lungs were unable to function on their own. The introduction of artificial breathing machines, known as "Iron Lungs," provided a lifeline to those who were unable to breathe unaided, giving them a chance to survive. The Iron Lung was a large, mechanical respirator that helped children breathe by creating a vacuum around their body, forcing air into their lungs and allowing them to inhale and exhale. Though it was an incredible technological breakthrough, children often had to spend months confined within these machines, which were not only physically restrictive but also emotionally taxing. The machine would provide life-saving support until the child's respiratory muscles regained enough strength to function independently. Despite the crucial role of the Iron Lung in saving lives, the survival rate was still low, and many children who were treated with this device did not survive. The machines, though revolutionary at the time, couldn't guarantee recovery, and the physical and emotional toll of long-term confinement was immense. It wasn’t until the development of the polio vaccine that the world could begin to effectively combat the disease, ultimately putting an end to the suffering caused by polio and reducing the need for these life-saving, but often ineffective, machines.

MIB s’associe à l’ensemble de la communauté scientifique pour rendre hommage au Pr. Michel Fougereau, disparu le 4 juillet 2025 à l’âge de 91 ans.

Pionnier de l’enseignement de l’immunologie à Aix-Marseille dès les années 1970, il a formé des générations d’étudiants avec exigence et clarté. Son enseignement, rassemblé dans un ouvrage dense et fondateur, a marqué toute une époque.

Chercheur d’exception, il a séquencé avec son équipe la première immunoglobuline de souris, contribuant à percer les mécanismes de reconnaissance des anticorps et à définir le récepteur pré-lymphocytaire B. Cofondateur du CIML, membre de l’EMBO et de l’Institut universitaire de France (IUF), il a œuvré toute sa vie au rayonnement de la recherche française.

Bâtisseur d’institutions, initiateur de formations innovantes, conseiller au Ministère chargé de l'Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche, président de la SFI Société Française d'Immunologie, il a su allier rigueur scientifique, vision académique et transmission des savoirs.

Au-delà de ses titres, nous garderons de lui le souvenir d’un homme exigeant, visionnaire et profondément engagé pour le progrès des sciences de la vie.

Merci Professeur.

📖 Extraits de l’hommage rédigé par : Philippe NAQUET, José Rocca-Serra, Anne-Marie Schmitt-Verhulst, Claudine Schiff.

COVID death toll… the USA represents 4.2% of the world population… And much more in terms of COVID deaths. Sadly..

Ravie de partager avec Christine Berton quelques grands moments de l’épopée de la vaccination.
Cela marque le début de notre aventure commune, une idée un peu folle que nous n’avons pas manqué d’avoir avec Elisabeth Botelho-Nevers et la rotonde École des Mines de Saint-Étienne: une expo autour de la vaccination.

On commence par la plongée historique avant de foncer vers les innovations.

Institut PRESAGE (PREvention SAnté GlobalE) CHU de Saint-Etienne Université Jean Monnet Saint-Etienne

After 6,000 people died from whooping cough in 1932, three extraordinary women stepped forward to confront this deadly disease. The three women -- scientists Pearl Kendrick and Grace Eldering and their research assistant Loney Clinton Gordon -- who developed a vaccine for pertussis, also known as whooping cough, became public health legends who were honored with this sculpture at the Michigan State University Research Center.

With thousands of children dying annually from the disease -- more than from diphtheria, scarlet fever, tuberculosis, or polio -- "it’s difficult to explain just how desperate people were for a [whooping cough] vaccine at this time,” says historian Carolyn Shapiro-Shapin. When their vaccine was ready for field testing in 1934, parents volunteered their children in droves, hoping to protect them from the horrors of the deadly "100 day cough." It's estimated that today, the vaccine saves half a million lives annually.

To introduce today's kids to what used to be a common childhood disease prior to vaccinations, polio, we highly recommend the books "Blue" (https://lnkd.in/e-ghmhjz) and "Small Steps: The Year I Got Polio" (https://lnkd.in/eRynBQ5U), both for ages 9 and up

To introduce children to more pioneering women of public health, we highly recommend "Dr. Jo: How Sara Josephine Baker Saved the Lives of America's Children" for ages 5 to 9 (https://lnkd.in/e9gtwC8z) and "Never Give Up: Dr. Kati Karikó and the Race for the Future of Vaccines" for ages 6 to 9 (https://lnkd.in/ej5ywtbe)

For a fun picture book about a young rabbit who discovers the cure to a mysterious malady sickening her forest friends, check out "Charlotte the Scientist Finds A Cure" for ages 4 to 8 at https://lnkd.in/ekh7t3q7

There is also an excellent book about 21 trailblazing women in medicine, “Bold Women of Medicine" for ages 12 and up at https://lnkd.in/eG48smqb

For more children's books about pioneering women of science, visit our blog post, "60 Children's Books to Inspire Science-Loving Mighty Girls," at https://lnkd.in/ei9c2WKT

There should be billboards, social media posts, and advertisements on television and the Internet to remind us all what this looks like. Given what’s going on in the anti-VAX movement, this could easily happen again.

Despite centuries of examples, long-term maladies after flu and other viruses remain absent from mainstream policy

The story of the discovery of these molecules 50 years ago shows how the free exchange of ideas can lead to life-changing treatments.

Sad news.
Great idea from Zelig Eshhar, that will remain in the scientific and therapeutic memory, like that of the immune system

🎧 Chapitre 4 — « Les exploits des Cellules CAR-T »
👉 Écouter le podcast : https://lnkd.in/embAf-rn