V. M. Danilova, R. P. Vynogradova, S. V. Komisarenko

Palladin Institute of Biochemistry, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv;
e-mail: valdan@biochem.kiev.ua

The discoveries of immunologists have often been recognized as the most significant in the field of medicine and physiology, since the immune system is extremely vital for the organism, and the study of the principles of its functioning is of fundamental importance to the prevention (vaccination), diagnosis and therapy of many diseases. This article refers to the scientists of the early twentieth century, who received the most prestigious scientific award – the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and who built the groundwork for the development of immunology as a science. Thus, in 1901, E. von Behring received the first Nobel Prize “for his work on serum thera­py, especially its application against diphtheria, by which he has opened a new road in the domain of medical science and thereby placed in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and deaths”; in 1908, I. Mechnikov and P. Ehrlich received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the creating of the cellular and humoral theory of immunity; in 1913 – C. Richet – “in reco­gnition of his work on anaphylaxis”; in 1919 – J. Bordet – “for his discoveries relating to immunity (the role of complement, mechanisms of precipitation, agglutination…)”; in 1930 – K. Landsteiner – “for his discove­ry of human blood groups”. Their works spurred the development of modern molecular immunology – the science of the organization and function of the immune system, as an effective defense barrier in the living organism, which recognize and distinguish between “self” and “non-self”.