Career
Detre coined the term "antigen" in a 1903 French-language paper co-authored with Russian biologist Élie Metchnikoff (referring to "substances immunogènes ou antigènes"), although the word and concept appears in his research as early as 1899. He is also a codiscoverer of the Wassermann reaction, publishing his discovery in humans just two weeks after Wassermann documented his findings in apes.