Important People MCB

Robert Hooke

• created compound microscope

• published fungus “Mucor” in Micrographia in 1665

• coined the term “cells”

Antonie van Leeuwenhoek

• first to observe microorganisms accurately

• simple/single lens microscope to observe bacteria (animalcules)

Lady Mary Wortley Montagu

smallpox inoculation

Carl Linnaeus

• taxonomic nomenclature

• separated into 3 categories: animals, plants, rocks

• genus and species (binomial)

  • microbiology does not use kingdoms, prokaryotes are too diverse

  • domain, phylum, class, order, family, genus, species

Lazzaro Spallanzani

• attempted to disprove spontaneous generation, Needham argued about lack of "vegetative force"

• experiment: broth in flasks → sealed → boiled

  • results: no growth of microorganisms

Edward Jenner

vaccination of smallpox/cowpox

Ignaz Semmelweis

studied child bed fever deaths → washing hands (antiseptic)

Florence Nightingale

nursing during the Crimean war

Louis Pasteur

• disproved spontaneous generation with Swan Neck

• developed pasteurization (decreased microbes)

• demonstrated microorganisms carried out fermentations

• discovered attenuation (loss of virulence)

• vaccinations for chickenpox, cholera, anthrax, and rabies

Joseph Lister

• development of antiseptic system - suggested cleaning surgical tools + hands

  • developed surgery system to prevent microorganisms from entering wounds

• provided indirect evidence that microorganisms were the causal agents of disease

Robert Koch

• Koch’s postulates: connection between microbes + disease, still used today

• established relationship between Bacillus anthracis and anthrax

• golden age of bacteriology

his work led to:

• agar

• petri dishes

• nutrient broth and nutrient agar

• methods for isolating microorganisms

Julius Petri

Petri dish

Alexander Fleming

discovered penicillin

Watson & Crick

DNA double helix