Pasteur and the Birth of Vaccines Made in the Laboratory

Louis Pasteur was born in Dole, a town in the French Jura, in a family of craftsmen. His father was a tanner. His mother was kept busy with her family of five children, Louis being the only boy. At first they lived in rather poor conditions in Dole, but soon moved to the nearby town of Arbois, where his father found a small tannery along the Cuisance River. Pasteur grew up in a supportive and loving familial environment and was successful in the local school and then in the secondary school of Besancon, a much bigger town not very far from Arbois. With the help of his father and his mentors in Arbois and Besancon, Pasteur spent 2 years preparing for the examination to enter the Ecole Normale Superieure (ENS) in Paris, to which the best candidates were accepted with an annual grant. He was successful and was admitted to the ENS, from which students were selected for teaching positions in French secondary schools and even in universities [1–3].