An antibody is a protein used by the immune system to identify and neutralise foreign objects like bacteria and viruses. Each antibody recognises a specific antigen unique to its target. Production of antibodies is referred to as the humoral immune system.
Rudolf Ludwig Carl Virchow was born on October 13, 1821 in the town of Schivelbein, in the German Kingdom of Prussia. Today the town is called Åwidwin and lies in Poland. His father was Carl Christian Siegfried Virchow, a farmer, and town treasurer of Schivelbein; his mother was Johanna Maria Hesse.
By the 1850s, people still didnât know exactly what caused disease. There were many theories, but none were based on scientific principles. In 1858, the German physician Rudolf Virchow offered the first clue with his cell theory. He said the cell, which Dutch inventor Antoni van Leeuwenhoek had seen 200 years earlier, was the basic unit of human life and that disease occurs when the function of cells is disrupted.