Constantin Levaditi (1 August 1874 – 5 September 1953) was a Romanian physician and microbiologist, a major figure in virology and immunology, especially in the study of poliomyelitis and syphilis.
Biography
Constantin Levaditi was born in Galați. His father, Spyridon Livaditis, of Greek descent (from Macedonia) was 30 years old and working as a customs officer. His mother, Ioana Ștefănescu, then aged 18 years, was the daughter of peasants from Focșani. The family name originates from the name of the town of Livadia, a town north of Athens (Livaditis means one who comes from Livadia). The researcher Pierre Lépine [fr] (1901–1987) reported that Spyridon Livaditis was a member of the Filiki Eteria (Society of Friends), established to organize the Greek Revolution of 1821 against the Ottoman Empire under the leadership of Prince Alexander Ypsilantis. However, after he had graduated from the Medical School, Constantin altered his surname from Livaditis to Levaditi, which is the alternative spelling of the town (Livadia is also Levadia).
Constantin Levaditi had a difficult childhood due to financial problems in the family. In September 1880, he went to the "Cuza Vodă" primary school in Galați, and at the same time started work at the store of his uncle Ștefan Ștefănescu. After the untimely death of his parents in 1883, Constantin’s aunt Efrosini, a member of his father’s family, took custody and he continued his basic education in Bucharest. He studied at Matei Basarab High School in Bucharest and at the Carol Davila University of Medicine and Pharmacy (1892-1896), where he studied under Victor Babeș. He had the opportunity to become familiar with a medical environment, as his aunt was a laundry worker at the "Brâncovenesc" Hospital in Bucharest. Thus, it was in a medical atmosphere that the future scientist grew up, a good student, gifted in mathematics, a lover of music and the theatre. His medical studies completed, Levaditi, an intern at the hospital, left it to his colleagues to make the ward rounds and spent his entire days in the laboratory. This is how he was noticed by Victor Babeș, of whom, in 1897, he became the assistant at the Bacteriological Institute. But he decided to leave for France: in 1898, he landed in Paris. After a passage in the laboratory of the academician Charles Bouchard, at the Hôtel-Dieu, he was, in 1899, assistant to Albert Charrin at the Collège de France.
Levaditi continued his postgraduate studies in 1900 and 1901 in Frankfurt with Paul Ehrlich who was considered the father of modern chemotherapy. In the spring of 1901 Levaditi, following the advice of the physician John Kantakouzinos, had the great opportunity to work in the Élie Metchnikoff Laboratory at the Pasteur Institute. In 1902, he completed his doctoral thesis entitled Contribution a l’étude des Mastzellen et de la Mastzellen-Leycocytose (Contribution to the study of the mast cells and the mast cells-leucocytes), which was considered a pioneering contribution to haematology. Two years later, in 1904, Emile Roux recognized Levaditi’s abilities and enthusiasm and appointed him director of an independent laboratory at the Pasteur Institute.
He will remain at the Pasteur Institute until retirement age. His choice is made: if he will remain sentimentally attached to his native Romania, it is France that has become his homeland because he has found there not only the means to work, but the intellectual atmosphere and the spiritual climate where he will be able to realize. He will return to Romania for a short trip in 1903, when he married Helen, the younger daughter of Dr. Constantin Istrati, and in 1920, as a guest lecturer at the University of Cluj.
His enterprising research in immunology led to nomination as Professor in 1924. The American Professor Simon Flexner proposed him as director of the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York, but Levaditi refused politely. Meanwhile, Levaditi taught at many Universities all over the world including London, Madrid, Barcelona, New York and Philadelphia.
The work of C. Levaditi is immense: it extends over more than half a century and it touches on apparently separate domains, but in reality they are united by the logical chain of thought and the development of research. His doctoral dissertation in medicine (1902) made Levaditi a cytologist and an immunologist. From this double training, C. Levaditi will always keep the imprint. Pathological histology will hold a considerable place in all his experimental work, itself oriented towards the solution of immunological problems raised by the various diseases he will study.