In Bordet’s classic paper on the properties of the sera of immunized animals he showed that two different substances (now known as sensitizing antibody and complement) are involved in the phenomenon of bacteriolysis. English translation in J. Bordet et al., Studies in immunity, New York, 1909, pp. 8-80.

In 1919 Bordet was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his work on the role of antibodies and the complement system."  Related to this prize see also Nos. 2551, 2552 and 2553.

Bordet’s important work on immune hemolysis turned the attention of many investigators towards the subject. English translation in J. Bordet et al., Studies in immunity, New York, 1909, p. 134.

English translation in T. Bordet et al., Studies in immunity, New York, 1909, p. 186.

The Bordet–Gengou complement-fixation reaction is the basis of many tests for infection, notably the Wassermann test for syphilis, and reactions for gonococcus infection, glanders, hydatid disease. English translation in Bibel, Milestones in immunology (1988), pp. 268-71.

The cocco-bacillus Haemophilus pertussis, commonly regarded as the causal organism of whooping cough, was at first named “Bordet–Gengou bacillus” after its discoverers. It has later renamed Bordetella pertussis.

Lysogeny