Microbiology - Historic names to know

1860-1960s

Matthias Schleiden and Theodor Schwann (1839)

Cell theory (cells make up all living things/new comes from existing)

Charles Darwin

Nature of Species/Natural Selection

Joseph Lister

First to employ Phenol to kill germs

Clara Barton

Making things more hygienic → reduce disease transmission. Founded Red Cross

Florence Nightingale

Got soldier death/battle injury data. Infections go w/death INSTEAD of injury

Robert Koch (1876)

Made Koch Postulates. Answered how pathogens cause disease.

Louis Pasteur

Dimitri Ivanovski

Did filter experiment → microbe so small filters don’t work on it → Tobacco mosaic disease exists!

Paul Ehrlich (syphilis guy)

Used Koch Postulates → identified Treponema Pallidum → created anti-bacterial chemotherapy to cure disease! Used Salvarsan compound.

Alexander Fleming (1929)

Found out staphylococcus aureus doesn’t grow around mold colony. Determined smth in mold. WASNT able to purify penicillin compound

Chain & Florey (1942)

Isolated/purified Penicillin to treat syphilis/other Gram positive infections. However later on caused antibiotic resistance. Helps treat Staphylococcus.

No anti-bacterial drugs have been developed in decades

TRUE

Watson & Crick (1953)

Used Maurice Wilkins/Rosalind Franklin’s research to publish DNA model

Jonas Salk (1954)

Created polio vaccine by sugarcube

Robert Hooke 1665

Microscope inventor. Called cells little boxes. FIRST visual evidence of organisms naked eye CANT SEE.

Sabin and Attenuated Polio Virus (1962)

Monkeypox. (edit later)

Bishop & Varmus (1976)

Saw 90% of human DNA does NOTHING (dormant) Awaken genes → cancer forms. Oncogenes discovery

Carl Woese (1977) Pronounced woah-shh.

Concluded there are 3 domains of life. Bacteria/Archaea/Eukarya. Based on ribosomal RNA sequences research.

Robert Gallo & Luc Montagnier (1982)

Identified human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)

Haemophilus influenza (1995)

#2 cause of ear infection. Baby killer ☹

Human Genome Project (2003)

1st time IN HISTORY mapping out DNA sequence. 2000+ DNA errors that cause human disease.

World “ended” (2012)

December 21, 2012. Mayan calandar predicted it.

Coronavirus (2019)

From Wuhan, China. Virus mutated to SARS-COV2. Similar to MARS, but COVID killed people.

World resurrected (2025)

self-explanatory

What did SIV (monkeyvirus) mutate into

HIV

We ___ have medications that can CURE HIV

DON’T

Viruses are always _____

mutating

How many base pairs do humans have?

3.1 billion

Wuhan Lab was conducting

“gain of function” research aka change virus to make it more deadly.

What did Robert Koch identify?

Bacillus anthracis (cause of anthrax) and mycobacterium tuberculosis (cause of tuberculosis) in 1882.

Who was THE FIRST use agar as solid surface for growing bacteria

Robert Koch

In 1995, ______’s genome was determined

Hemophilus influenzae

What is penicillin secreted by

Penicillium notatum

When did the world ‘end’

December 21, 2012

Golden age of Microbiology?

1860s; Pasteur/Darwin/Mendel/Koch = naturalists

Gregor Mendel

Father of Genetics