Louis Pillemer (1908 – August 31, 1957) was an American immunologist, an early investigator of the alternative complement pathway (a system of defense not dependent upon antibodies).
He attended public schools in Catlettsburg and Ashland, Kentucky, and began collegiate work at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, later attending Marshall College at Huntington, West Virginia, and Duke University at Durham, North Carolina.
He quit this job in 1935 and entered graduate school at Western Reserve University where he would stay rest of his life.
He earned a reputation as an excellent biochemist and was the first to purify tetanus and diphtheria toxins which were later used to develop the DPT vaccine.
[2] He led a team at Western Reserve University which discovered properdin in 1954,[3] and this discovery received attention from the national press as a breakthrough in immunology.