Metchnikoff, Elie

Russian zoologist and immunologist who was a pioneer of cellular immunology and shared the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1908 with Paul Ehrlich for the discovery of the innate immune response.

Types of immunity
While at a teaching post in Italy, Metchnikoff started working on the immune cells of the starfish and discovered innate immunity; the process by which mobile white blood cells (phagocytes) engulf and digest potentially harmful micro-organisms. Innate immunity is the inborn, nonspecific defence against infection, since prior exposure to the pathogen is not required. Alternatively, adaptive or acquired immunity refers to the production of a specific antibody against a particular germ and is the basis of vaccination. Innate immunity is important to the fight against any infection, since it provides defence against pathogens during the three to five days it takes to elicit the acquired immune response.