Alexandre+Emile+Jean+Yersin

 **Alexandre Emile Jean Yersin** (September 22, 1863–March 1, 1943) **:**

Yersin wa s a French and Swiss bacteriologist and physician. He was born into a a family that was originally from France, yet he was also Swiss due to his birth place of Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. During the early 1880s, Yersin studied medicine at Lausanne, Switzerland, before moving to Marburg, Germany; he ultimately ended up in Paris. In 1886, he entered Louis Pasteur's research institute and helped in the creation and development of the first anti-rabies serum. In 1888, Yersin earned his doctorate and spent two months with the famous Robert Koch in Germany. He, along with his partner Roux, who had also recently joined Pasteur's laboratory in 1889, discovered the diphtheric toxin, another great achievement in such a young career .Yersin was constantly on the move, and b ecause he wanted to practice medicine in France, he had to apply for French nationality in 1888. He received it that same year, but after spending just a few years as a practitioner in France, Yersin was sent by request of the French government and Pasteur Institute to Hong-Kong. This trip was intended to investigate the Manchurian Pneumonic Plague epidemic, and there, along with his co-discoverer Kitasato Shibasaburō, he made the great discovery that he is best known for. Indeed, Yersin discovered the pathogen which causes the plague itself, and he was also able to demonstrate, for the first time, that the same bacillus was present in the rodent as well as in the human disease. Therefore, Yersin also underlined the means of transmission, namely from rat to flea to human. During the mid to late 1890s, Yersin consistently continued his studies on the bubonic plague. In 1895 he returned to the Institute Pasteur in Paris, where he prepared the first anti-plague serum. Later that same year, he returned to Indochina; upon arrival, Yersin installed a small laboratory at Nha Trang as an institute which could manufacture serum for the local infectees. Because of his great discoveries and work regarding the plague, Yersin was nominated honorary director of Pasteur Institute and a member of its Board of Administration in 1934. He died during World War II at his home in Nha Trang, in 1943. [1]

 [1] Alexandre Yersin: Biography from Answers.com." // Answers.com: Wiki Q&A Combined with Free Online Dictionary, Thesaurus, and Encyclopedias //. Web. 15 Apr. 2011. .