Filterable virus (Ivanovsky, Beijerinck)
Virus como agente filtrable (mosaico del tabaco)
- Date
- 1892-1898 · confidence high
- Place
- Delft, Netherlands (and Saint Petersburg, Russia)
- Credited to
- Dmitri Ivanovsky (1892) and Martinus Beijerinck (1898)
- People
- 👤 Dmitri Ivanovski1864–1920👤 Martinus Willem Beijerinck1851–1931
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
The agent of tobacco mosaic disease passed through filters that retain bacteria; Beijerinck called it 'contagium vivum fluidum' and recognised it as a new type of pathogen that only replicates in living cells.
Ivanovsky observed the filterability in 1892 but attributed it to a toxin; Loeffler and Frosch found the foot-and-mouth disease virus in 1898.
What it led to
- virology
- identification of human viruses (yellow fever, polio, influenza)
- crystallisation of TMV (Stanley, 1935)
- molecular biology
Built on
- Germ theory and pasteurization1857-1865
- Chamberland filter
Made possible
- Bacteriophages1915-1917
- Isolation of yellow fever virus (Asibi strain)1927
- Rift Valley fever virus1930-1931
- West Nile virus1937
- Zika virus1947
- Chikungunya virus1952-1953
- Ebola virus1976
- Chamberland filter as a tool
- antiviral vaccines