History of Immunity and Vaccines

Vocabulary flashcards covering key historical figures, experiments, concepts, and branches of immunology and vaccine development.

Vaccine

A substance that builds preventative immune protection against a specific infection.

Inactivated Vaccine

A type of vaccine in which the pathogen is killed.

Attenuated Vaccine

A type of vaccine in which the pathogen is weakened.

Jonas Salk

Scientist who created a Poliovirus vaccine using inactivated vaccines based on Louis Pasteur's work.

John Snow

Physician who in 1854 suggested boiling water prior to drinking after removing a water pump handle ended a cholera outbreak.

Louis Pasteur

Scientist who determined in 1860 that microorganisms cause spoiling, developing pasteurization by heating liquids and allowing them to cool to kill microorganisms.

also created rabies vaccine (inactivated vaccine)

Germ Theory

The concept that microscopic germs cause disease, which was proven by Robert Koch in 1876.

Robert Koch

Scientist who used microscopy and developed culture techniques in 1876 to generate pure cultures of anthrax bacteria, proving the Germ Theory.

Koch's Postulates

A set of four criteria establishing that a specific microorganism causes a given disease, requiring isolation, pure culture, infection of a healthy host, and re-isolation.

Chicken Cholera Experiment

An experiment by Louis Pasteur where 1-month-old bacteria left over vacation were injected into chickens, resulting in survival and immunity rather than disease.

Paul Ehrlich

Scientist who proposed the Side Chain Theory of Immunity in 1900, cured diphtheria using anti-serum, and described adaptive humoral immunity.

Side Chain Theory of Immunity

Theory proposed by Paul Ehrlich in 1900 stating that special proteins (antibodies) in the blood protect against pathogens.

Antibody

A protective protein in blood with antigen-binding fragments that specifically binds to complementary antigens.

Elie Metchnikoff

Scientist who observed cells eating foreign material in 1883, named them phagocytes, and defined innate cellular immunity.

Phagocyte

A type of cell that eats foreign material to destroy it, derived from 'phago' (eating) and 'cyte' (cell).

Macrophage

A specialized phagocyte named by Elie Metchnikoff, meaning 'big eater'.

Innate Immunity

The branch of immunity that is pre-programmed, simple, hard-wired, and evolutionarily conserved.

Adaptive Immunity

The branch of immunity that responds to specific infection and is built for variability.

Branches of Immunity

The division of immunity into Innate (hard-wired/conserved) and Adaptive (built for variability) branches, each comprising Humoral and Cellular components.

Edward Jenner

Doctor who created the first vaccine in 1796 by inoculating a boy named James with cowpox material from a milkmaid named Sarah to protect against smallpox.

Variolation

An early immunization technique practiced in China and India in the 16th century involving taking smallpox material from one person and giving it to another to induce a mild infection.

Smallpox

A disease targeted by the first vaccine developed by Edward Jenner, with no reported cases worldwide since 1980.