Hideyo Noguchi

Hideyo Noguchi (野口 英世, Noguchi Hideyo; November 9, 1876 – May 21, 1928), also known as Seisaku Noguchi (野口 清作, Noguchi Seisaku), was a Japanese bacteriologist at the Rockefeller Institute during its foundation under Simon Flexner and known for his work on syphilis and contributing to the long term understanding of neurosyphilis. During the emergence of the field of serology, he began as a research assistant to American physician Silas Weir Mitchell in his studies on snake venom at the University of Pennsylvania in 1901. Mitchell and Noguchi presented the results before National Academy of Science. Noguchi was an early advocate of the widespread use of antivenoms before their mass production in the United States. In 1903, Noguchi went to the Statens Serum Institute in Denmark and produced one of the first antiserums to treat the North American rattlesnake bite alongside Thorvald Madsen. In 1909, he wrote his comprehensive monograph, Snake Venoms: An Investigation of Venomous Snakes with Special Reference to the Phenomena of Their Venoms, which contained several drawings and photographs of specimens. Beginning his career at the Rockefeller Institute during its foundation, Noguchi was the first person in the United States to confirm the causative agent of syphilis, Treponema pallidum, after it was first identified by Fritz Schaudinn and Erich Hoffmann in 1905. His most notable achievement was isolating Treponema pallidum in the brain tissues of patients with general paresis and tabes dorsals, a late stage consequence of tertiary syphilis. His discovery established the conclusive link between the physical and mental manifestation of syphilis. American educator and psychiatrist John Clare Whitehorn considered it an outstanding psychiatric achievement. Later in his career, Noguchi developed the first serum to give partial immunity to Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a notoriously lethal disease before treatment was discovered. He also suggested the name...