Émile Roux

1853–1933

Roux joined Pasteur’s laboratory in 1878 and participated in work on fowl cholera, anthrax and rabies. Cultures, animal observations and immunity investigations required different experimental and medical tasks. Attributing the entire programme to Pasteur alone obscures the work of Roux and other collaborators within it.

References: [1]

In 1888 Roux and Alexandre Yersin investigated diphtheria and demonstrated a disease-producing toxin associated with the bacterium. Research could then ask not only whether bacteria were present but how their products damaged the body. Separating bacterial cells conceptually from toxin helped frame subsequent work on antitoxin.

References: [1]

Roux, Louis Martin, Auguste Chaillou and colleagues investigated and evaluated diphtheria serum treatment, publicly reporting important results in 1894. Antibody-containing serum differs from vaccination intended to induce a recipient’s response. Preparation, potency and clinical observation had to be coordinated; discovering a toxin did not by itself establish a finished therapy.

References: [1] [2]

Roux helped establish the Institut Pasteur and its microbiology teaching, training investigators from different countries. He supported Pasteur Hospital and directed the institute from 1904 until his death in 1933. Teaching and administration organized methods, personnel and the continuing conditions of investigation, extending his contribution beyond individual experiments.

References: [1]