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The "Victor Babeş" Institute, which bears the name of its founder, Prof. Dr. Victor Babeş, was established on the 28th of April 1887 and is the oldest scientific medical institute in Romania. It was initially conceived as a superior practical school for all those in the sanitary field, a complex medical institute like the Pasteur Institute in Paris, having various departments, such as pathologic anatomy, bacteriology, anti-rabies vaccination, veterinary pathology, serology and chemistry. In time, some of these areas were taken over by other establishments which were set up later, following the model of the "Victor Babeş" Institute: the Cantacuzino Institute, the Institute for Public Health and Hygiene, the Virology Institute, the Pasteur Institute.
In the beginning, the Institute’s name was “The Pathology and Bacteriology Institute”, and it was set up in the old Brîncoveni palace, on Calea Victoriei. Since 1899 it has been carrying on with its activity in the present building. Amongst the departments mentioned above, the new building also had a few other sterile rooms, the anti-rabies institute (with the anti-rabies health center), a museum, the library, three chambers for practical works of pathologic anatomy and bacteriology, dedicated to both students and medics, an autopsy room, and in the yard farms for small animals, stables and other such installments.
In an address he made on the 3rd of April 1900 at the Romanian Academy, Prof. Victor Babeş spoke of the original way in which this institute was organized, housed in a monumental building on the bank of the Dâmboviţa, and equipped with all the means necessary for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases.
Thanks to the importance of the contributions brought by the promotion of medical science in complex areas such as pathologic anatomy, bacteriology, virology, immunology, hygiene, compared pathology and even the history of medicine, the fame of the “The Pathology and Bacteriology Institute” run by Dr. Victor Babeş soon crossed the country’s borders. Also, nationally, it was capable of satisfying some of the most urgent medical necessities of the respective period: rabies control, prophylaxis of contagious diseases, ensuring methods of testing and controlling water, in order to supply Bucharest’s inhabitants with the cleanest drinkable water, and treating some animal diseases. As the director of the Institute, Prof. Dr. Victor Babeş took on some of the socio-medical problems of those times, like the issue of the pellagra and that of drawing up realistic solutions for the medical organization of the country, foreseeing the organization of a Ministry of Health.
The Institute’s international renown aside, maybe its most important contribution is forming a series of specialists and professors who have passed on to become founders of medical courses in our country or heads of medical schools.
The Institute’s entire history is closely related to the work, the professionalism and the personality of its founder, Prof. Dr. Victor Babeş.
Born on the 28th of July 1854, he completes his medical studies at the respective faculties from Budapest and Vienna (1871-1878). In 1878, at the age of 27, he passes his professor’s exam and is designated extraordinary pathology professor at the Budapest Medicine Faculty. In 1882-1886 he worked with some of the greatest specialists of that time: O. Bollinger and H.W. Ziemsen (Munchen), J. Arnold (Heidelberg), F. Recklinghausen and W. Waldeyer (Strasbourg), A.V. Cornil and L. Pasteur (Paris), R. Virchow and R. Koch (Berlin).
In 1893 he becomes an active member of the Romanian Academy, and in 1900 he establishes in Bucharest the Anatomic Society, which constituted a strong incentive for the anatomic clinical studies in our country. In 1913 he contributes to the fight against the cholera epidemic from Bulgaria, preparing an anti-cholera vaccine. During 1916-1918 he continues his work of preparing the biological products necessary to the Romanian population under occupation. In 1919 he is appointed professor at the newly founded Cluj University. In parallel with this activity he also carried on an intense work as a publicist, publicizing articles, monographies, treaties in which all of his researches and discoveries are included. At present, these works, together with other publications about his activity, can be found at the Institute’s library.
Of Victor Babeş’s remarkable students, we mention: Ghe. Marinescu, Vasile Sion, Mihail Manicatide, Constantin Levaditi, Constantin Bacaloglu, Teodor Mironescu, Titu Vasiliu, Aurel A. Babeş, Dumitru Marinescu-Slatina, Elena Puşcariu Densusianu (the first women university professor in Romania), Elena Proca, Aurel Stamatiade, Lucreţia Moscuna-Sion, Alexandru Tălăsescu
Of the department managers who worked and collaborated directly with Victor Babeş we mention: Constantin Starcovici, Emil Puşcariu, Ghe. Proca, Victor Oprescu, Paul Rigler, V. Buşilă, Emil Pop, Sever Bobeş, Aurel Babeş, Gh. Lupu, Emil Crăciun, C. Ionescu-Mihăeşti.
The Institute’s prodigious activity was continued by a series of illustrious specialists of Romanian medicine, who were directors of the Institute: Ghe. Proca, C. Bacaloglu, Ghe. Lupu, E. Crăciun, I. Moraru. They themselves formed other specialists, researchers, professors who continued and extended the work begun by their forerunners. Of these we cite: A.Ursu, C. Păunescu, V. Roşca, A. Mureşeanu, G. Pambuccian, E. Teodorescu, St. Niculescu, V. Săhleanu, A. Eskenasy, E. Mestes, C. Taşcă, F. Pascu, C. Pantelie, M. J. Cernat, S.Constantinesc, P.G. Nicolescu, G. Filipescu, D. Laky, M. Zaharia, G. Rotaru, C. Rişcuţia and many others.
All these personalities have contributed to the continuous growth of the prestige of the "Victor Babeş Institute", which over the years has become a standard unit for fundamental and applied medical research. Following the recognition of its importance, in 1999, the Institute became The National Institute for Research and Development in the Field of Pathology and Biomedical Sciences "Victor Babeş".
At the present day, the activity of The National Institute for Research and Development in the Field of Pathology and Biomedical Sciences "Victor Babeş" is concentrated on medical research, both fundamental and focused on clinical, pharmaceutical, prophylactic and hygienic applications, and is organizes in several departments which cover a large area of pathology and medical biology: pathology, immunology, cellular and molecular biology. The departments themselves are made up of laboratories with different particularities. Diagnosing is complementary to the research and is undertaken by groups of specialists who run special anatomopathologic, immunologic, biochemical and genetic diagnosis tests for sanitary units all over the country or for other clinical centers.
The entire activity is coordinated by Prof. Dr. Laurenţiu M. Popescu, Conf. Dr. Mihai Hinescu and Dr. C. T. Dragomir, and accomplished with a highly skilled personnel made up of doctors, biologists, biochemists, physicians and chemists. We mention: Prof. Dr. Florin Hălălău, Prof. Dr. C. Ardeleanu, C. Ursaciuc, M. Botea, A. Lungeanu, M. Neagu, E. Mandache, E. Moldoveanu, C. Tănase, D. Mihalache, G. Savi.
In 2005, the Institute received the ISO 9001 certification for the management of quality system it has implemented.
Institutul National Victor Babes - www.ivb.ro - @ 2008