Constantin Levaditi

Constantin Levaditi (1 August 1874 – 5 September 1953) was a Romanian physician and microbiologist, a major figure in virology and immunology, especially in the study of poliomyelitis and syphilis.

Biography Constantin Levaditi was born in Galați. His father, Spyridon Livaditis, of Greek descent (from Macedonia) was 30 years old and working as a customs officer. His mother, Ioana Ștefănescu, then aged 18 years, was the daughter of peasants from Focșani. The family name originates from the name of the town of Livadia, a town north of Athens (Livaditis means one who comes from Livadia). The researcher Pierre Lépine [fr] (1901–1987) reported that Spyridon Livaditis was a member of the Filiki Eteria (Society of Friends), established to organize the Greek Revolution of 1821 against the Ottoman Empire under the leadership of Prince Alexander Ypsilantis.

Levaditi continued his postgraduate studies in 1900 and 1901 in Frankfurt with Paul Ehrlich who was considered the father of modern chemotherapy. In the spring of 1901 Levaditi, following the advice of the physician John Kantakouzinos, had the great opportunity to work in the Élie Metchnikoff Laboratory at the Pasteur Institute. In 1902, he completed his doctoral thesis entitled Contribution a l’étude des Mastzellen et de la Mastzellen-Leycocytose (Contribution to the study of the mast cells and the mast cells-leucocytes), which was considered a pioneering contribution to haematology. Two years later, in 1904, Emile Roux recognized Levaditi's abilities and enthusiasm and appointed him director of an independent laboratory at the Pasteur Institute.

Parallel to these works, which after his retirement from the Institut Pasteur in 1940, he continued at the Alfred-Fournier Institute, from which he had, when it was created in 1932, received the scientific direction, C. Levaditi carried out the research on viruses which made him the founder and leader of the French school in the field of ultraviruses.

With Karl Landsteiner, he discovered in 1909 the presence of the poliovirus in tissues other than nervous. He expanded on these studies during a poliomyelitis outbreak in Sweden (in 1913),

Levaditi spent almost his entire career at the Pasteur Institute. Though his was the only career beside Landsteiner's to span the age of Pasteur and modern times, he was not well recognized in the history of poliovirus research. Moreover, unlike Landsteiner, Levaditi never relinquished his interest in poliovirus research after the discovery of the aetiologic agent of poliomyelitis by Landsteiner and Popper in 1908. His colleague John Paul notes that Levaditi did not live to see the widespread success of poliomyelitis prevention through immunological approaches. Though, he did live to witness the confirmation of the work he had conducted with Kling and Lépine, which represented an important recognition of his contributions to the field.

Constantin Levaditi was a member of the Académie Nationale de Médecine and an honorary member of the Romanian Academy. In 1928, he was awarded the Cameron Prize for Therapeutics of the University of Edinburgh. Throughout his career, Levaditi published more than 1,200 notes, articles, and monographs.

Socio-professional activity internal physician in a hospital in Bucharest (1896); preparator at the Institute of Bacteriology in Bucharest, working during the student period with Professor Victor Babeș (1897); he went to Paris with letters of recommendation from Professor Victor Babeș, becoming an assistant to Professor Albert Charrin in the laboratory of general and experimental pathology led by him at the Collège de France, during which Levaditi elaborated 16 original scientific papers (1898–1899); assistant to Professor Paul Ehrlich at the Königliches Institut für experimentelle Therapie in Frankfurt am Main (1900–1901); preparator at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, actively participating in the development of pastoral doctrine as a student of Élie Metchnikoff and Émile Roux (1902–1905); assistant at the Pasteur Institute in Paris (1905–1910); he addressed a request to the Faculty of Medicine in Bucharest, requesting a lecturer or professor position, the request was accepted, but without being offered a laboratory for research, which made him resign (1906); head of the laboratory at the Pasteur Institute (1910–1912); participated with Carl Kling in a scientific mission, researching the poliomyelitis epidemic in Sweden (1912); head of department and scientific director, and from 1926, professor at the Pasteur Institute in Paris (1912–1940); he taught advanced postgraduate courses at the Pasteur Institute in Paris (1912–1931); mobilized in the First World War, he was initially assigned at a field hospital in Orléans, then he was appointed head of the diagnostic laboratory of the Military Hospital in Orléans (1914–1915); head of the laboratory of an ambulance station near the city of Reims, being promoted to the rank of captain; transferred to the ambulance of the Belgian army in La Panne (1915–1918); obtained for Romania a valuable medical aid for the Romanian army during the First World War (1915); Professor at the Department of General and Experimental Pathology of the Faculty of Medicine in Cluj (1920–1921); screenwriter and director (together with director Eugen Gyulai Farcaş) of the first feature-length medical film in Romania, of anti-syphilitic propaganda, shot in Cluj, "Din grozăviile lumii" (1920); associate professor at the Faculty of Medicine in Madrid and Barcelona (1923–1924); lectured under the auspices of "The Harben Lectures" in London (1923); appointed permanent professor at the "École de sérologie appliquée" in Paris (1927); violinist and then conductor of the Doctors' Orchestra of Paris; lectured at the University of Edinburgh and under the auspices of "The Harvey Lecture" in New York (1928); together with Émile Roux, he carried out a scientific expedition in the Bas-Rhin department (France), where a poliomyelitis epidemic had broken out (1931); held a cycle of conferences in Locarno (Switzerland), at the invitation of the American "Tomarkin" Foundation (1932); scientific director of the French Institute of Sifiligraphy "Alfred Fournier" (1932–1953); he published in specialized magazines from France, Germany and England and supported over 100 communications of original scientific works (1933–1935); in the Second World War he entered the army as a consultant doctor in the Health Service of the XV Military Region in Orléans (1939); during the Nazi occupation, he evaded offers of collaboration with the Hitlerites, ending up being threatened with "the investigation of his activity directed against the new order", but he managed to publish and support over 70 scientific works.

Affiliation corresponding member (1910), honorary member (1926) of the Romanian Academy; this quality was withdrawn by the communist regime following the reorganization of the Romanian Academy into the R.P.R. Academy (Aug. 1948); he was reinstated (1990); member and secretary of the Society of Exotic Pathology (1912–1919); full member of the Académie Nationale de Médecine in Paris (1928); full member and vice-president of the Society of Biology in Paris (1931); president of the French Society of Applied Serology (1931).

Notable works the discoverer, together with Victor Babeș, of the actinomycotic form of the tuberculosis bacillus (1897); discovered a new flagellate parasite of silkworms which he named Herpetomonas bombicis (1905); he developed a method for detecting the syphilitic spirochete (the Levaditi-Manouélian method) and discovered a new type of spirochete (Spirocheta gracilis) (1906); founder of experimental virology: together with the Austrian doctor Karl Landsteiner, he demonstrated that poliomyelitis can be inoculated to superior monkeys (chimpanzee) and that this disease is caused by a filterable virus (1909); together with Carl Kling demonstrated that the poliomyelitis virus is transmitted through the digestive tract (1912); the first European to grow the poliomyelitis virus on tissue fragments in vitro, an achievement that precedes the preparation of the poliomyelitis vaccine (1913); first physician to show utility of streptococcal vaccines in war surgery (1918); made one of the first European scientific propaganda films against venereal danger (1920); created together with Ştefan S. Nicolau a new vaccine against smallpox, "Neurovaccina Levaditi-Nicolau" (1922); together with R. Sazérac, he discovered the therapeutic properties of bismuth and initiated antiluetic bismuth therapy, later publishing, in Paris, the work Bismuth in the treatment of syphilis (1922); he coordinated the chemotherapy team at the Pasteur Institute in Paris, conducting systematic research on 45 elements from the Mendeleev Table, of which 10 were found to be active in syphilis (1927–1931); was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Medicine (1928); he presented his own vision on how viruses multiply (1939, 1943); he was the second researcher in the world, who introduced penicillin in the treatment of syphilis (1944); he left behind more than 750 published works, among them: Études sur la poliomyélite aigué épidémique (in collaboration, 1913); Ectodermose neurotropes (1922); Le bismuth dans le traitement de la syphilis (1924); L'hérpès et le zone (1926); Syphilis Prophylaxis (1936).

Writings Debut: Sur la forme actinomycosique du bacille de la tuberculosis, in collaboration with Victor Babeș (Archives des sciences médicales, Paris, 1897); La leucocytose et ses granulations (Paris, 1902); La nutrition dans ses rapports avec l’immunité (Paris, 1904); La réaction des anticorps syphilitiques dans la paralysie générale et le tabès (Paris, 1906), written with A. Marie; La syphilis (Paris, 1909), written with F. Roché; Traitement de la paralysie générale par injection du sérum savarnisé dans la dure-mère cérébrale (Paris, 1913), written with A. Marie et T. Martel; Étude sur le tréponème de la paralysie générale (Paris, 1919), written with A. Marie; Les ectodermoses neurotropes, poliomyélite, encéphalite, herpès (Paris, 1922), with preface by E. Roux; Vaccine pure cérébrale, virulence pour l’homme, in Comptes rendus hebdomadaires des séances de l’Académie des sciences, 174 (1922), written with S. Nicolau; Étude de l’action thérapeutique sur la syphilis (Paris, 1923), written with R. Sazérac; Le bismuth dans le traitement de la syphilis (Paris, 1924); L’herpès et le zona (Paris, 1926); Travaux de microbiologie et de pathologie humaines et animales. 1897–1933 (Paris, 1993); Prophylaxie de la syphilis (Paris, 1936); Traité des ultravirus des maladies humaines et animales, 2 vols. (Paris, 1943–1948); La pénicilline et ses applications thérapeutiques (Paris, 1945); Précis de virologie médicale (Paris, 1945); La streptomycine et ses applications thérapeutiques, pricipalement dans la tuberculose (Paris, 1946); Les antibiotiques autres que la pénicilline (Paris, 1950); Le chloramphénicol et ses applications thérapeutiques (Paris, 1951).

Bibliographies of monographs and articles by Levaditi are his Travaux de médecine expérimentale, 1897–1931. Ectodermoses neurotropes, neuroprotozooses, syphilis, chimiothérapie et chimioprévention, phagocytose, immunité, érythème polymorphe, rhumatisme, ergostérol irradié (Paris, 1931); and Titres et travaux. Microbiologie, pathologie humaine et animale, chimiothérapie. 1897–1951 (Paris, 1952).

Prizes, awards "Bréant" Prize of the French Academy of Sciences (1901); "Montyon" Prize of the French Academy of Sciences (1902); First Prize at the International Exhibition in Strasbourg, on the occasion of the centenary of Pasteur's birth (1922); The Great "Cameron" Prize of the University of Edinburgh (1928); "Cornovin" Award (1928); Prize of the French League Against the Venereal Danger (1929); The "John Scott" Medal and Prize of the University of Philadelphia (1929); The Grand Prize for Chemotherapy and the "Paul Ehrlich" Gold Medal (1931); Commander of the "Legion of Honour" Order (1939).

Titles Scientific title: Doctor of Medicine from the University of Paris, with the thesis „Contribution à l’étude des Mastzellen et de la Mastzellen–Leucocytose” (1902). Honorary title: Doctor Honoris Causa of the University of Amsterdam (1932).