Page "Bacillus Calmette–Guérin" Paragraph 3

Albert Calmette, a French bacteriologist, and his assistant and later colleague, Camille Guérin, a veterinarian, were working at the Institut Pasteur de Lille ( Lille, France ) in 1908.

Their work included subculturing virulent strains of the tubercle bacillus and testing different culture media.

They noted a glycerin-bile-potato mixture grew bacilli that seemed less virulent, and changed the course of their research to see if repeated subculturing would produce a strain that was attenuated enough to be considered for use as a vaccine.

The research continued throughout World War I until 1919, when the now avirulent bacilli were unable to cause tuberculosis disease in research animals.

They transferred to the Paris Pasteur Institute in 1919.

The BCG vaccine was first used in humans in 1921.