Metchnikoff, Elie, << mehch nee KAWF, ay LEE >> (1845-1916), was a Russian biologist. He shared the 1908 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his work in immunology (the study of immunity). In particular, he discovered the function of phagocytes. In the human immune system, phagocytes are white blood cells that attack disease germs. Metchnikoff determined that inflammation at a wound is caused when phagocytes surround germs. Doctors at first opposed his ideas on phagocytes. But his discovery was generally accepted before his death on July 15, 1916.
Metchnikoff’s writings include Immunity in Infectious Diseases (1901) and Lectures on the Comparative Pathology of Inflammation (1892). He later studied aging. In The Prolongation of Life (1905), he suggests that eating cultures of sour milk bacteria, commonly available in yogurt, would slow the aging process.
Metchnikoff was born on May 16, 1845, in Ivanovka, near Kharkov (also spelled Kharkiv). He studied in Russia and Germany and taught zoology at Odessa University. He joined the staff of the Pasteur Institute in Paris in 1892 and became its subdirector in 1895.
