MAJOR CONTRIBUTORS IN MICROBIOLOGY

Girolamo Fracastoro

• 1546

• Proposed that invisible organisms may be involved in disease and that epidemic diseases are caused by transferable tiny particles or spores.

Robert Hooke

• 1660

• Discovered the smallest structural units were little boxes “cells”.

Francesco Redi

• 1668

• Demonstrated that animals do not arise spontaneously from dead organic matter.

• Used flies to disprove spontaneous generation

Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek

• 1676

• The first to describe bacteria and protozoa using a small, simple microscope; known as the “Father of Microbiology”.

John Needham

• 1745

• Demonstrated experiments that seemed to show that there was a life force that produced spontaneous generation.

Lazzaro Spallanzani

• 1770

• Demonstrated that heated broth, in the absence of air, do not support spontaneous generation; challenged John Needham.

Edward Jenner

• 1796

• Introduced the first vaccine – against smallpox; explained the effectivity of using cowpox vaccine as an immunization for smallpox in humans.

Ignaz Philipp Semmelweis

• 1847-1850

• Substantiated his theory that childbed fever is a contagious disease transmitted to women by their physicians during childbirth; postulated washing with chlorinated lime solutions.

• Discovered handwashing prevents puerperal fever (Infection)

John Snow

• 1853-1854

• Demonstrated the epidemic spread of cholera through a water supply contaminated with human sewage.

Rudolf Virchow

• 1858

• Challenged abiogenesis with the theory of biogenesis summarized by “omnis cellula e cellula”.

Louis Pasteur

• 1857

• Studied bacterial contamination of wine; stated that specific microbes produce a specific fermentation product.

• Developed techniques for selective destruction of microorganisms

Louis Pasteur

• 1861

• Disproved the theory of spontaneous generation through definitive experiments.

• He introduced the terms “aerobes” and “anaerobes”

Louis Pasteur

• 1868

• Discovered infectious agents causing silkworm diseases.

Louis Pasteur

• 1881

• Made significant contributions to the Germ Theory of Disease and developed vaccines for anthrax and rabies.

Joseph Lister

• 1867

• Published his first work about antiseptic surgery, applying phenol (carbolic acid) to kill bacteria.

John Tyndall

• 1876-1877

• Demonstrated that open tubes of broth remained free of bacteria if air was free of dust; developed tyndallization (fractional sterilization).

Robert Koch

• 1876-1877

• Observed anthrax in cattle and identified Bacillus anthracis as its causative agent.

Robert Koch

• (1881)

• Introduced pure culture techniques and developed solid culture media (agar).

Robert Koch

• 1882

• Discovered the pathogen for TB and his laboratory assistant invented the Petri dish.

Robert Koch

• 1884

• Developed postulates in proving the cause of infectious disease.

Hans Christian Gram

• (1884)

• Devised the Gram staining technique for differentiating bacteria.

Emil Adolf von Behring

• (1890)

• Developed the method for producing immunity by using antitoxin against diphtheria.

Dmitri Ivanovsky

• (1892)

• First to discover viruses (tobacco-mosaic virus) and showed it can be transmitted in a cell-free infiltrate.

Giovanni Battista Grassi

• (1898)

• Demonstrated that mosquitoes carry the malaria parasite Plasmodium.

Sir Ronald Ross

• (1898)

• Discovered the malarial parasite to be residing in the GI tract of the Anopheles mosquito

Florence Nightingale

• (19th Century)

• Developed modern nursing techniques and procedures for organizing hospitals to reduce the spread of diseases.

Fritz Richard Schaudinn & Erich Hoffmann

• (1905)

• Syphilis is caused by Treponema pallidum

Paul Ehrlich

• (1908)

• Formulated the humoral theory of resistance and developed the first chemotherapeutic agent (Salvarsan) to combat syphilis.

Francis Rous

• (1910)

• Discovered viruses that could induce cancer.

• oncovirus

Alexander Fleming

• (1929)

• Discovered and described the properties of the first antibiotic (Penicillin).

• Fungus-killer (antibiotic)

Ernst August Friedrich Ruska & Bodo von Borries

• (1933-1938)

• Developed the first electron microscope.

Jonas Salk

• (1954)

• Developed the first Polio Vaccine

Maurice Ralph Hilleman

• (1982)

• Developed the first version of the Hepatitis B vaccine from virus isolated from fresh human blood.

Luc Antoine Montagnier & Robert Charles Gallo

• (1983)

• Isolated and characterized HIV

Pablo DT Valenzuela

• (1986)

• Discovery of the Hepatitis C virus and the invention of the first recombinant vaccine against the Hepatitis B virus.

Georgetown University Medical Center, University of Rochester, University of Queensland (Australia), U.S. National Cancer Institute

• (2006)

• Combined efforts that invented the HPV vaccine.