Robert Koch

• Robert Koch


  German scientist who built on Pasteur's germ theory
• Robert Koch


  • Identified specific germs that cause specific diseases including Anthrax, tuberculosis and diphtheria
  • Used dyes to make germs easier to study under a microscope
  • Inspired the hunt for 'Magic Bullet' medicines that would only target harmful microbes and not the patient
  • Developed vaccines, although his much celebrated TB vaccine turned out to be ineffective
• Robert Koch's work


  Inspired members of his team like Paul Ehrlich and Sahachiro Hata to do their own investigations in the search of 'Magic Bullet' medicines
• Robert Koch's work, along with Louis Pasteur's, provided much progress in the history of medicine and the understanding of the cause of disease
• Robert Koch and Louis Pasteur were great rivals
• The Franco-Prussian War between 1870-1871 created a rivalry between France and Prussia (part of Germany) that spurred on both Pasteur and Koch
• Prussia won the Franco-Prussian War, which was humiliating for the French, so Pasteur perhaps especially wanted to prove that his country was still a powerful nation
• Technology such as photography, Petri dishes, potatoes, and improved microscopes helped Koch in his work
• Koch was the first to prove that an individual bacterium could cause disease, in the case of Anthrax
• Koch developed a cure for tuberculosis, even though it was not effective