History of Microbiology

• Bacteria: Mycobacterium Tuberculosis (TB)
• Fungi: Candida albicans (Thrush)
• Viruses: Zaire Ebolavirus (Ebola)
• Protozoa: Plasmodium falciparum (Malaria)
• Algae: Protothecia wickerhamii (Protothecosis)
• Stromatolites:

  • 3 billion years old
  • laminated rock formed by layers of cyanobacteria
• Robert Hooke (1635-1703):

  • 1665 Micrographia
  • First person to use the term cell
• Anton van Leeuwenhoek: (1632-1723)

  • was the first to observe microorganisms with a microscope.
• Louis Pasteur: (1822- 1895)

  • Alcohol fermentation
  • Swan neck flasks
  • Vaccine - anthrax, fowl cholera, rabies
• Robert Koch: (1843-1910)

  • causes of bacterial diseases
  • Kochs postulates
  • anthrax- bacillus anthracis
• Koch's postulates:

  • The Microorganism Must Be Present in Every Case of the Disease
  • The Microorganism Must Be Isolated and Grown in Pure Culture
  • The Pure Culture Must Cause Disease When Introduced into a Healthy Host
  • The Microorganism Must Be Reisolated from the Experimentally Infected Host and Shown to Be the Same as the Original Causative Agent
• koch and TB:

  • Koch developed a method of staining the waxy bacteria (Acid -Fast staining)