Alexandre Besredka

Who was Alexandre Besredka?

Alexandre Mikhailovich Besredka was a French biologist and immunologist born in Odessa. In 1910 he became a citizen of France.

He studied biology in Odessa, afterwards moving to Paris, where he was an assistant to Ilya Ilyich Metchnikov at the Pasteur Institute. He obtained his medical degree in 1897 with the thesis Abscès sous-phréniques. In 1903 with Amédée Borrel, Félix Mesnil, Gabriel Bertrand, Camille Delezenne and Auguste-Charles Marie, he co-founded the Bulletin de l'Institut Pasteur. From 1905 to 1914 he was in charge of the laboratory at the Pasteur Institute.

In 1910 he attained the title of professor, and for several years worked with Metchnikoff conducting experiments of typhoid fever on chimpanzees. During World War I he served as a medical officer at Verdun and Bar-le-Duc. From 1919 he focused on studies of immunity involving intestinal infections.

Besredka specialised in research of immunology, cellular self-defense mechanisms and phagocytosis. During his career at the Pasteur Institute, he made contributions in his work involving antiviral therapy, as well as in the development of vaccines against various infectious diseases.