History of Micro

All the dead (and mostly white) people of microbiology

Anton van Leeuwenhoek

“Father of Microbiology”

Credited as first person to observe microscopic life

Made his own microscope

Called moving microbes he observed “animalcules”

Francesco Redi

Denied spontaneous generation

Demonstrated that maggots didn’t spontaneously generate on meat

John Needham

Supported spontaneous generation

Sealed flasks after heating broth in an open flask, after a few days growth was present

Been suggested that he didn’t heat broth long enough to kill all present microbes

Lazzaro Spallanzani

Denied spontaneous generation

Similar experiment to Needham, but he heated broth longer and sealed the mouth of the flasks by melting the glass

Rudolf Virchow

Denied spontaneous generation

Contributed to Schleiden and Schwann's cell theory, Omni cellula e cellula

Louis Pasteur

Denied spontaneous generation

Used swan neck flasks to allow air into flask while keeping out the microbes in the air

Developed alcohol fermentation by yeast, and pasteurization as a method to destroy most spoilage organisms/pathogens without destroying the properties of the food

Ignaz Semmelweis

Promoted handwashing to decrease maternal deaths due to puerperal fever in hospitals

Joseph Lister

Developed aseptic surgical technique

Soaked bandages in carbolic acid and sprayed carbolic acid in air during procedures

Robert Koch

Developed method to link specific disease to specific organism

1905 Nobel Prize for Physiology/Medicine

Carlos Juan Finlay

Discovered mosquitoes can transmit the virus that causes yellow fever

Angelina Fanny Hesse (Fanny)

Introduced agar as alternate to gelatin for solid media (gelatin melts at lower temps and some microbes liquify gelatin)

Edward Jenner

First human vaccine (used pus from blisters on a milk maid that had cowpox)

Vaccination is latin (smallpox of the cow)

Shibasabro Kitasato

First to grow Clostridium tetani in pure culture

Worked w/ Emil von Behring to make antitoxins for diptheria, anthrax, tetnaus

Controversy if they or Yersin discovered bubonic plague bacterium.

Charlos Chagas

Discovered Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi (protozoa) is transmitted by “kissing bug”

Dmitri Iwanowski and Martinus Beijerinck

Discovered viruses

George Washington Carver

First African American to earn a Bachelor of Science degree

Developed crop rotation to replenish nitrogen in depleted soils

William Augustus Hinton

First black professor at Harvard

Developed accurate test for syphilis

Hinton College at USCOM-Greenville is named after him

Jane Hinton

Daughter of William Augustus Hinton

Developed Muller-Hinton agar, the standard medium for antibiotic sensitivity testing

One of the first African American women veterinarians

Paul Ehrlich

Discovered first effective treatment for syphilis while searching for a “magic bullet” (drug to kill pathogen w/o hurting host)

1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine for work to develop diphtheria antitoxin

Alexander Fleming

Discovered penicillin (first antibiotic)

1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine

Susumu Tonegawa

Discovered VDJ recombination, the genetic basis for antibody diversity

1987 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine

Ruth Ella Moore

First African American woman to earn PhD in natural science and to join American Society for Microbiology

Studied many topics, one was antibiotic sensitivity of gut microbiome organisms

Ester Lederberg

Discovered bacteriophages

Developed replica plating method

June Almeida

Discovered coronaviruses

Used electron microscope to capture first images of many viruses (rubella and hep B)

Jacinto Convit

Developed vaccine for leprosy

Tu Youyou

Discovered antimalarial drug artemisinin, chemical extracted from sweet wormwood

2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine