Dr. Naresh Khanduri, Ph.

D (Faculty of Medicine)

CONTRIBUTIONS OF DIFFERENT SCIENTISTS

Anton von Leeuwenhoek: Already discussed
Louis Pasteur
1. In 1861, he resolved the controversy of spontaneous generation versus biogenesis
and proved that microorganism are not spontaneously generated from inanimate
matter but arise from other microorganism
2. He was also responsible for saving a principal industry in France. I.e. manufacture
of wine and beer. He found that fermentation of fruits and grains, resulting in
alcohol was brought about by microbes and also determined that bacteria were
responsible for the spoilage of wine during fermentation.
3. Pasteur also suggested that mild heating at 62.80C for 30 minutes rather than
boiling was enough to destroy the undesirable organism without ruining the taste
of the product, the process is called pasteurization.
4. Pasteur work appeared to demonstrate that microbes could be cause of disease for
if they could spoil the wine; perhaps they could also make the body sick. This led
to the development of germ theory of diseases
5. Pasteur while working on chicken cholera developed the technique of attenuating
cultures. This attenuated culture was called vaccine, in honor of Edward Jenner,
who had used cowpox virus to protect humans from smallpox disease. Using this
method, Pasteur developed anthrax vaccine. 5 years later he was successful in
preparing vaccine against rabies
Robert Koch
The first direct demonstration of role of bacteria in causing disease was provided by
Robert Koch, a German physician who first of all isolated anthrax bacillus
1. He perfected the technique of isolating bacteria in pure culture
2. He also introduced the use of solid culture media in 1881 by using gelatin as a
solidifying agent
3. In 1882, he discovered Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
The most notable contribution of Koch was the establishment of the casual relationship
between a microorganism and specific disease by applying a set of criteria referred to as
Koch Postulates. The postulates are
1. The microorganism must be present in every case of the disease but absent from
healthy organisms
2. The suspected microorganisms must be isolated and grown in a pure culture
 Dr. Naresh Khanduri, Ph. D (Faculty of Medicine)

3. The same disease must result when the isolated microorganism is inoculated into a
healthy host
4. The same microorganism must be isolated again from the diseased host.
Robert Koch will be remembered for both discovery of important disease producing
microorganism and his fundamental contribution to bacteriological techniques
During Koch’s studies on bacterial diseases, it became necessary to isolate suspected
bacterial pathogens in pure culture—a culture containing only one type of
microorganism.
At first Koch cultured bacteria on the sterile surfaces of cut, boiled potatoes, but this was
unsatisfactory because the bacteria would not always grow well. Eventually he developed
culture media using meat extracts and protein digests because of their similarity to body
fluids. He first tried to solidify the media by adding gelatin.
 Separate bacterial colonies developed after the surface of the solidified medium
 When the gelatin medium hardened, individual bacteria produced separate
colonies.
Despite its advantages, gelatin was not an ideal solidifying agent because
 it can be digested by many bacteria and
 Melts at temperatures above 28°C.
A better alternative was provided by Fannie Eilshemius Hesse, the wife of Walther
Hesse, one of Koch’s assistants She suggested the use of agar as a solidifying agent—she
had been using it successfully to make jellies for some time.
 Agar was not attacked by most bacteria
 Did not melt until reaching a temperature of 100°C.
 Once melted, it did not solidify until it reached a temperature of 50°C,
Eliminating the need to handle boiling liquid and providing time for manipulation of the
medium.
Another important tool developed in Koch’s laboratory was a container for holding
solidified media—the petri dish (plate), named after Richard Petri, who devised it. These
developments directly stimulated progress in all areas of bacteriology
 Dr. Naresh Khanduri, Ph. D (Faculty of Medicine)

Joseph Lister
A famous English surgeon is known for his notable contributions to the antiseptic
treatment for the prevention and cure of wound infections
1. Lister concluded that wound infections too were due to microorganism.
2. In 1867, he developed a system of antiseptic surgery designed to prevent
microorganism from entering wounds by the application of phenol on surgical
dressing and at times it was sprayed over the surgical areas.
3. He also devised a method to destroy microorganism in the operation theatre by
spraying a fine mist of carbolic acid into the air thus producing antiseptic
environment
4. He also heat sterilized the instruments to be used during surgery
5. Thus Joseph Lister was the first to introduce aseptic techniques for control of
microbes by the use of physical and chemical agents. Because of his notable
contributions, he is known as father of antiseptic surgery
Virus Discovery
 Viral pathogens were also studied during this time. The discovery of viruses and
their role in disease was made possible when Charles Chamberland (1851–1908),
one of Pasteur’s associates, constructed a porcelain bacterial filter in 1884.
 Dimitri Ivanowski and Martinus Beijerinck (pronounced “by-a-rink”) used the
filter to study tobacco mosaic disease. They found that plant extracts and sap from
diseased plants were infectious, even after being filtered with Chamberland’s
filter.
 Because the infectious infectious agent passed through a filter that was designed to
trap bacterial cells, the agent must be something smaller than a bacterium.
Beijerinck proposed that the agent was a “filterable virus.”
 Eventually viruses were shown to be tiny, acellular infectious Agents
Elie Metchnikoff
 He (1845–1916) discovered that some blood leukocytes could engulf disease-
causing bacteria. He called these cells phagocytes and the process phagocytosis
[Greek phagein, eating].
As soon as the relationship between microorganism and disease was established, many
scientists initiated work in search of substances that would kill pathogens without
harming the patient
 Dr. Naresh Khanduri, Ph. D (Faculty of Medicine)

Paul Ehrlich
 While experimenting with dyes for controlling pathogen he in 1904, found that the
dye trypan red was active against the trypanosome that causes sleeping sickness
and could used therapeutically. This dye with antimicrobial activity was referred
to as magic bullet.
 Subsequently, Ehrlich in collaboration with Sakahiro, introduced the drug
salvarsan as a treatment for syphilis caused by Treponema pallidum.
 Use of salvarsan marked the beginning of the era of chemotherapy
Alexender Fleming
 Credited for the discovery of first wonder drug penicillin
 Discovery of penicillin is a fascinating and fortunate incident. One day in
September, 1928, he observed that the plate of Staphylococcus aureus had been
contaminated with a green mold Penicillium notatum which had accidently fallen
in the plate. Observing his plate, Fleming noted that the colonies of
Staphylococcus aureus were evidently destroyed by nearby penicillium colonies.
He isolated and subcultured the mold for further study. He extracted from the
fungus a compound which he called penicillin that could destroy several
pathogenic bacteria
The discovery of penicillin stimulated the search for other antibiotics
Selman Waksman
 He announced in 1944 that he and his associates had found a new antibiotic,
streptomycin, produced by the actinomycete Streptomyces griseus.
 This discovery arose from the careful screening of about 10,000 strains of soil
bacteria and fungi.
 The importance of streptomycin cannot be understated, as it was the first drug that
could successfully treat tuberculosis
 Waksman received the Nobel Prize in 1952, and his success led to a worldwide
search for other antibiotic-producing soil microorganisms
 Dr. Naresh Khanduri, Ph. D (Faculty of Medicine)

Edward Jenner
 He observed that countryside milkmaids who contracted cowpox while milking
were subsequently immune to smallpox. On may 14, 1796, he proved that
inoculating people with pus from cowpox lesions provided protection against
smallpox. Eventually the process was termed as vaccination based on latin word
vacca meaning cow.
Sergei Winogradsky
 The Russian microbiologist Sergei Winogradsky (1856–1953) made many
contributions to soil microbiology.
 He discovered that soil bacteria could oxidize iron, sulfur, and ammonia to obtain
energy, and that
 Many bacteria could incorporate CO2 into organic matter much like
photosynthetic organisms do.
 Also isolated anaerobic nitrogen-fixing soil bacteria
 Studied the decomposition of cellulose
Martinus Beijerinck
 He isolated the aerobic nitrogen-fixing bacterium Azotobacter, a root nodule
bacterium also capable of fixing nitrogen (later named Rhizobium), and sulfate-
reducing bacteria
Beijerinck and Winogradsky also developed the
 Enrichment culture technique and the
 Use of selective media,