Pioneers of microbiology

Pioneers of microbiology in brief with pictures.
By Jwala Jayadeep
KUFOS

1. WELCOME PIONEERS OF MICROBIOLOGY BY JWALA

2. ANTONIE VAN LEEUWENHOEK Considered as the father of microbiology. Best known for his contributions towards the establishment of microbiology as a scientific discipline. Main discoveries:- Infusoria ( protists in modern zoological classification) Bacteria The vacuole of cell Spermatozoa The banded pattern of muscle fibers. He was the first person to use a histological stain to color specimens using saffron.

3. LOUIS PASTEUR He is one of the most important founders of medical microbiology. He pioneered in:- The study of molecular asymmetry. Discovered microorganisms that causes fermentation and diseases. Originated the process of pasturization . Developed vaccines against anthrax and rabies. He showed that a specific organism was associated with each particular fermentation. This evidence gave rise to the germ theory of fermentation.

4. ROBERT KOCH He is credited to be one of the founders of the specific filed of modern microbiology. He investigated the anthrax disease cycle and studied the bacteria that cause tuberculosis and cholera. He discovered bacteria such as anthrax bacilli, tubercle bacilli and cholera bacilli. He observed the phenomenon of acquired immunity. He introduced solid media for culture of bacteria. He described hanging drop method for testing motility.

5. Koch’s postulates Koch’s postulates consist of the following four rules:- The microorganism must be identified in all individuals affected by the disease, but not in healthy individuals. The microorganism can be isolated from the diseased individual and grown in culture. When introduced into a healthy individual, the cultured microorganism should cause disease. The microorganism must then be re-isolated from the experimental host and found to be identical to the original microorganism.

6. JOSEPH LISTER He is a British surgeon and medical scientist who was the founder of antiseptic medicine and a pioneer in preventive medicine. His principle– that bacteria must never gain entry to an operation wound– remains the basis of surgery to this day.

7. EDWARD JENNER He is popularly known as the father of immunology. He discovered vaccination for small pox.

8. Sergei winogradsky He was a Russian microbiologist, ecologist and soil scientist who pioneered the cycle-of-life concept. Discovered chemosynthesis. Invented the Winograsky column Discovered and isolated nitrogen fixing bacteria in soil that makes nitrates available to green plants. Founded microbial ecology.

9. PAUL EHRLICH He is known as the founder of modern chemotherapy. His laboratory discovered arsphenamine ( salvarsan ), the first effective treatment of syphilis. He popularized the concept of a magic bullet. He also made a decisive contribution to the development of an antiserum to combat diptheria .

10. LEDERBERG & ZINDER Zinder and Lederberg had discovered a versatile way to transfer small bits of genetic material from one bacterium to another through a process known as transduction. Transduction is the transfer of genetic information from a donor to a recipient cell via a virus particle. Today , transduction enables microbiologists to map and manipulate genes in a wide variety of bacteria and archaea .

11. LWOFF He contributed to the understanding of lysogeny , in which a bacterial virus, or bacteriophage, infects bacteria and is transmitted to subsequent bacterial generations solely through the cell division of its host . Lwoff also discovered that  vitamins   serves both as growth factors and as coenzymes for microbes.

12. ARBER & SMITH Werner Arber, Daniel Nathans and Hamilton O. Smith  won the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine in 1978 for their discovery of restriction enzymes and their application to problems of molecular genetics. Arber  discovered restriction enzymes. He postulated that these enzymes bind to DNA at specific sites containing recurring structural elements made up of specific base pair sequences . Smith verified Arber’s hypothesis with a purified bacterial restriction enzyme and showed that this enzyme cuts DNA in the middle of a specific symmetrical sequence.

13. TEMIN & BALTIMORE They won the Nobel price for physiology or medicine in 1975 for their work in the discoveries concerning the interaction between tumour viruses and the genetic material of the cell.

14. MONTAIGNER & GALO Montaigner with his group was the first to isolate HIV. Galo with his is group is credited with the discovery that the virus causes AIDS.

15. references https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ Pommerville , J.C., 2011. Fundamentals of microbiology. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. 9 th edtn Pg:- 1-26 Willey, Joanne M., 2009 Prescott’s principles of microbiology / Joanne M. Willey, Linda M. Sherwood, Christopher J. Woolverton .— 1st ed . Pg :- 1-13 www.britannica.com/biography/ www.google.co.in/imghp