Bronisława Fejgin (1883-1943): Forgotten Important Contributor to International Microbiology and Phage Therapy.

Andrzej Grzybowski,Maciej Żaczek,Ryszard Międzybrodzki,Beata Weber-Dąbrowska,Andrzej Górski

doi:10.3390/antibiotics10111353

Abstract

Bronisława Brandla Fejgin was a Polish-born Jewish female physician. Among Fejgin’s numerous articles in the field of microbiology, her later work was almost entirely devoted to phage research. Although not equally famous as the phage pioneers from Western Europe, F.W. Twort and F. d’Herelle, Fejgin’s contribution to phage research deserves proper recognition. Her studies on phages resulted in the publication of numerous original scientific reports. These articles, published mostly in French, constitute an important source of information and expertise on early attempts towards therapeutic use of phages in humans. The interwar period marks the most intense years in Bronisława Fejgin’s research activity, brutally interrupted by her death in the Warsaw Ghetto in 1943. Her microbiology contributions have not been analyzed so far. Thus, the aim of this article is to fill the existing gap in the history of microbiology and phage therapy.

Highlights

Frederick William Twort and Felix d’Herelle are considered to be the discoverers of phages and fathers of phage therapy [1]
Bronisława Fejgin played an important role in paving the way for the advancement of research on bacteriophages and for the future generations of phage scientists
After an in-depth analysis of Fejgin’s published work, we believe that she deserves no less attention than the phage pioneers, Twort and d’Herelle, as well as Ludwik Hirszfeld, whose work was mainly directed towards serology but, as the founder and first Director of the Institute of Immunology and Experimental Therapy, Polish Academy of Sciences in Wrocław (Poland), is inevitably associated with phage research and phage treatment of humans [45,46]

Summary

Introduction

Frederick William Twort and Felix d’Herelle are considered to be the discoverers of phages and fathers of phage therapy [1]. One of the significant early contributors to this field, Bronisława Fejgin (Figure 1), who along with the aforementioned phage discoverers, conducted pioneering research on bacterial viruses and their therapeutic applications long before World War II, is largely forgotten. There has been no scientific analysis of her works conducted in the literature. The aim of this study was to perform such an analysis supplemented with some reliable biographical information

2.2.Methodology

Perception of Fejgin’s Work among Other Authors

Conclusions