Pierre Paul Émile Roux

Pierre Paul Émile Roux ( born December 17, 1853 in Confolens in the Charente, † November 3, 1933 in Paris) was a French scientist and pioneer in the field of microbiology.

Roux studied medicine from 1872 to 1873 in Clermont- Ferrand, from 1874 to 1878 he studied in Paris.

Together with Louis Pasteur, whose pupil he was, Émile Roux made ​​important investigations on the cause of infectious diseases and the principles of vaccination. He discovered in 1889 the diphtheria toxin and developed from 1894 onwards, the serum therapy against diphtheria in particular. Along with Alexandre Yersin, he had in 1888, after that it is not the bacteria themselves cause the symptoms of the plague, but the poison is secreted under anaerobic conditions in laboratory containers by the bacteria. With Edmond Nocard he discovered in 1898 with Mycoplasma mycoides, the causative agent of contagious bovine pleuropneumonia, the first known mycoplasma.

In 1917 he was awarded the Copley Medal.