Hideyo Noguchi

Hideyo Noguchi (1876 to 1928), also known as Seisaku Noguchi, was a Japanese bacteriologist at the Rockefeller Institute during its foundation under Simon Flexner, known for his work on syphilis and for contributing to the long term understanding of neurosyphilis. He began as a research assistant to the American physician Silas Weir Mitchell on snake venom at the University of Pennsylvania in 1901, was an early advocate of the widespread use of antivenoms, and in 1903 produced one of the first antiserums against North American rattlesnake bite with Thorvald Madsen at the Statens Serum Institute in Denmark. At the Rockefeller Institute he was the first person in the United States to confirm Treponema pallidum, the causative agent of syphilis, and isolated it in the brain tissue of patients with general paresis. This entry records what he reported; it is not medical advice.