1852-1931

Japanese Physician and Bacteriologist

Shibasaburo Kitasato was a Japanese physician who became interested in studying microbes and their link to diseases. Under government sponsorship, he spent six years in Berlin working with Robert Koch (1843-1910). Kitasato is best remembered for his work on tetanus and diphtheria, successfully growing the first pure culture of the tetanus bacillus in 1889. Working with Emil von Behring (1854-1917), Kitasato demonstrated the power of blood serum as an antitoxin for treating both these diseases. In 1894 Kitasato discovered, simultaneously with Alexandre Yersin (1863-1943), the bacillus that causes bubonic plague.

Born in 1852 on Japan's southern island of Kyushu, Kitasato attended medical school first in Kumamoto and later in Tokyo. After graduating he went to work for the Central Sanitary Bureau. There he worked in the field of public health, studying cholera epidemics and working to prevent outbreaks of infectious diseases. In 1886 Kitasato was...