Ilya Mechnikov

Élie Metchnikoff

1845 (Ivanivka, Ukraine) – 1916 (Paris)

Mechnikov studied at Giessen with Leuckart, making important discoveries about cellular digestion, but Leuckart published the work as his own, and Mechnikov left for Göttingen. Travelling from Odessa to Paris to seek Pasteur’s advice, he was given a lifetime post at the Pasteur Institute. Lister was sympathetic to his phagocytic theories, while his close friend Roux (with whom he worked on the transmission and treatment of syphilis) and Ehrlich were colleagues in Paris; Ehrlich and he shared the Nobel prize for their immunological work. Koch was typically antagonistic to his theories, but they eventually became firm friends.

Ilya Mechnikov knew…