Emil Adolf Behring is known as the great pioneer of serum therapy. His discovery of diphtheria and tetanus antitoxins paved the way for the prevention of disease through immunization.

Behring began his career in immunology as an assistant to Robert Koch at the Institute of Hygiene in Berlin. It was here that he joined a remarkable team of principal researchers investigating the new science of bacteriology.

While working at the Institute, Behring began research on diphtheria and tetanus. In the late 19th century, diphtheria was a leading cause of mortality in children. The disease, caused by Corynebacterium diphtheriae , can be traced back to the 4th to 5th century B.C. It was nicknamed the "strangling angel" because of the pseudomembrane that forms an adherent covering over the tonsils, pharynx and/or nasal cavity, obstructing breathing.

Likewise, tetanus is a predominately fatal condition characterized by prolonged contraction of the skeletal muscle. Infection usually occurs through contamination of deep cuts or puncture wounds. The primary symptoms of tetanus are caused by a neurotoxin produced by the gram-positive, bacillus-shaped, obligate anaerobic bacterium Clostridium tetani.

Toxins produced by C. diphtheriae and C. tetani were cultivated in 1888 and 1889, respectively, and, at the time, both organisms were known to cause disease when injected in pure form into healthy animals.

In 1890, Behring and a colleague on the Koch team, Shibasaburo Kitasato, published a joint paper famously entitled " The Mechanism of Immunity in Animals to Diphtheria and Tetanus ." The paper outlined how sterilized broth cultures of bacilli injected into the bodies of healthy animals resulted in the production of antitoxins capable of neutralizing these deadly toxins.

Within a week of this publication, Behring produced another article of a similar nature on immunity against diphtheria, outlining five ways in which it could be achieved. Behring and Kitasato later showed how serum obtained from animals exposed to toxins could be used to confer immunity to disease in other animals and, more astoundingly, even cure animals in the throes of deadly infection. The foundation of serum therapy and immunization by vaccination was dawning.

Behring at right with lab partner and guinea pigs

Though Behring struggled to produce consistent results using diphtheria antitoxin in human subjects, Paul Ehrlich, another contemporary from the Institute of Hygiene, developed a process to standardize antitoxin production. Behring and Ehrlich went on to jointly develop a process to produce high-quality antitoxin from horses and sheep, paving the way for large-scale antitoxin production and widespread therapeutic use.

By 1895, Behring had been named professor and director of the Institute of Hygiene at the University of Marburg.

Behring continued to work with diphtheria during his directorship at Marburg and, in 1913, he announced the development of a novel toxin-antitoxin mixture used to provide longer-lasting immunity than serum-derived antitoxin. This approach to disease prevention, rather than treatment, became the forerunner for modern vaccine methods. To this day, children are routinely and effectively vaccinated against diphtheria and tetanus using vaccines based on Behring's model.

Behring is credited for his contribution to the significant drop in diphtheria mortality around the end of the 19th century, and it is for this feat that he is primarily remembered. In 1901, Behring received the Nobel Prize for his work on serum therapy, "placing in the hands of the physician a victorious weapon against illness and death."

With such notoriety, Behring was elevated to the status of nobility and received a sizeable cash prize. Other financial gains followed.  In 1914, he established a company to manufacture serums and vaccines; profits generated from this venture afforded him the fine luxuries of high society.

Despite outward appearances of considerable personal and professional accomplishments, Behring struggled with bouts of severe depression. In 1917, Behring contracted pneumonia and, soon thereafter, died of complications from the illness in Marburg, Germany. His work was held in such high regard, that foreign representatives of medical science from 26 nations attended his funeral services to pay tribute to him. His service was said to be a "deed of noble humanity" and his generosity towards science deserving of the "gratitude of the world."

Antisera is also used for the identification of microorganisms. See our line of Denke antisera .