George Heist

George D. Heist (1886–1920) was an immunologist specializing in the study of infections of meningococcal bacteria that often result in meningococcal disease, which is well known as highly lethal and debilitating, and extremely difficult to treat.

During Dr. Heist's seminal study of the properties of a person's blood serum that protect against this bacterium, he died of meningitis. It turned out that Heist's own blood lacked the properties that destroy the particular type of meningococcal bacterium that caused his meningitis.

In 1919, Dr Heist and co-workers [Heist et al., 1922] established that clotted blood from different persons varied in its ability to kill Neisseria meningitidis in a capillary tube. When Heist, whose blood had no bactericidal activity, acquired an N. meningitidis infection, the link between serum bactericidal activity and resistance to meningococcal infection was proven" (Pollard et al. 2004, p. 1812).