Sereda O. Scientific Heritage of Rudolf Weigl, Inventor of the Epidemic Typhus Vaccine.

The thesis is dedicated to the research of the scientific heritage of Rudolf Weigl, the inventor of the epidemic typhus vaccine and founder of the first department of medical biology in the territory of modern Ukraine. For the first time in Ukraine, achievements of Rudolf Weigl, inventor of the first epidemic typhus vaccine that saved millions of human lives in different countries, became the subject of a comprehensive historical and scientific analysis and generalization. Professor Rudolf Weigl's achievements in vaccine discovery, his worldwide recognition, and foundation of the scientific school have been highlighted. It has been demonstrated that advance research in different fields was carried out on the basis of his scientific research in microbiology and medical biology. In particular, microagglutination reaction, a simple and reliable method of diagnosing epidemic typhus, has been elaborated and put into practice; course of rickettsia infection in the infected organism has been determined; the effect of various antibiotics on rickettsiae has been studied; the effect of insecticides and systemic drugs on the population of lice has been investigated; lice have been used as the object for genetic research, etc