Kitasato Shibasaburo
Kitasato, Shibasaburo (1852-1931), a Japanese bacteriologist, discovered the bacillus that causes bubonic plague and did important work on other diseases. After receiving a medical degree from Tokyo University (1883), Kitasato worked at the Central Bureau of the Public Health Department. In 1885, the government sent him to Robert Koch 's laboratory in Berlin, Germany, to study new developments in bacteriology. There, in 1889, Kitasato succeeded in deriving the first pure culture of the bacillus that causes tetanus. In 1890, in collaboration with German bacteriologist Emil von Behring, he showed that immunity to tetanus could be achieved by injecting a subject with a serum containing antitoxin produced in the blood of an animal exposed to the tetanus bacillus. Later that year, Behring and Kitasato applied this immunological approach to diphtheria and tetanus, publishing a milestone paper that opened up the new field of serology. Before leaving Berlin, Kitasato also worked on tuberculin, which Koch had discovered in 1890. Berlin University recognized Kitasato's achievements by making him an honorary professor.
In 1891, Kitasato established and became director of Japan's first small private bacteriological institute. When bubonic plague broke out in Hong Kong in 1894, the government sent him to investigate the epidemic. Kitasato and Swiss-born French bacteriologist Alexandra Yersin, who had been sent by the French government for the same reason, each independently discovered the bacterium that causes bubonic plague. In 1898, Kitasato also found the organism that causes dysentery.
In 1915, when the Ministry of Education took over his institute against his wishes, he resigned to found the Kitasato Institute, which he directed for the remainder of his life. From 1917 until 1928, he also served as the first dean of the school of medicine of Keio University in Tokyo. In 1924, the emperor honored Kitasato with the title baron.