Lesson 2 History

• Girolamo Fracastoro (1478 - 1553) believed disease was caused by invisible living creatures known as germs of contagion or seminaria morbis - seeds of disease
• Antoni van Leeuwenhoek observed bacteria and protozoa using his homemade microscopes
• "The Golden Age of Microbiology" was driven by the search for answers to:

  • Is spontaneous generation of microbial life possible?
  • What causes fermentation?
  • What causes disease?
  • How can we prevent infection and disease?
• Francesco Redi (1626 - 1697) and other investigators like John Needham, Lazzaro Spallanzani, Rudolf Virchow, Louis Pasteur, John Tyndall, and Ferdinand Cohn contributed to the debate on Spontaneous Generation Theory
• Edward Jenner introduced a vaccination procedure for smallpox in 1798/1796
• Ignaz Semmelweis proposed that handwashing could prevent the spread of infection in 1848
• Joseph Lister and Robert Koch made significant contributions to microbiology
• • Elucidation of bacteria as distinct species
  • Development of nutrient broth and agar
• Robert Koch's advances in microbiology include:

  • Simple staining techniques for bacterial cells and flagella
  • 1st photomicrograph of bacteria
  • 1st photomicrograph of bacteria in diseased tissue
  • Techniques for estimating the number of bacteria in a solution based on the number of colonies that form after inoculation onto a solid surface
  • The use of steam to sterilize growth media
  • The use of Petri dishes to hold solid growth media
  • The use of agar as a solidifying agent
  • Aseptic laboratory techniques such as transferring bacteria between media with heat-sterilized platinum wire
• Alexander Fleming shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain for the discovery of penicillin
• Selman Waksman was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1952 for the discovery of streptomycin
• Carl Woese and Thomas Brock made significant contributions to microbiology
• Thermus aquaticus has the best growth at 65 – 70 °C (149 – 158 °F) and can survive at temperatures of 50 – 80 °C (122 – 176 °F)
• Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a technique used in microbiology
• Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) is a significant concept in microbiology