Microbe Hunters

Robert Koch

Laney Browder

Background

• Born December 11, 1843 in Clausthal, Prussia

• 1 of 13 children of a mining engineer and his wife

• Taught self to read at the age of 5

Background

• Considered one of founders of microbiology

• Studied medicine and natural science at the University of Gottinger

• Won Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine

Contributions

• Discovered cause of anthrax by inoculating mice with the blood of dead infected animals and the blood of healthy animals

• Invented way to isolate anthrax bacillus from the blood and grow pure cultures

Contributions

• Invented methods to cultivate pure bacteria on Petri dishes• Created new methods of staining bacteria to study• Discovered bacterium causing tuberculosis

Setback

• Prematurely announced cure for tuberculosis

• Did not work

Tuberculin

Contributions

• Studied cholera outbreak in Egypt• Identified the vibrio bacterium that caused cholera but

could not prove• Formulated rules to control epidemics - still used today

4 Postulates

• Developed 4 postulates still used in studying bacteria

1. Infected tissue must show the presence of a particular microorganism not found in healthy animals

2. The microorganism must be isolated and grown in a pure culture

3. When injected into a healthy animal, the microorganism must cause the disease associated with it

4. This “second generation” microorganism should then be isolated and shown to be identical with the microorganism found in 1

Postulates are quoted from “Robert Koch, 1843-1910”

Works Cited

• “Robert Koch.” Famous Scientist. FamousScientists, 18 June 2012. Web. 30 January2013.

• “Robert Koch – Biography.” Nobelprize.org.The Nobel Foundation, n.d. Web. 30January 2013.

• “Robert Koch, 1843-1910.” Contagion HistoricalViews of Diseases and Epidemics. ThePresident and Fellows of Harvard College,

n.d. Web. 30 January 2013.

J Michael Bishop

Background information

• Born on February 22, 1936, in York, Pennsylvania

• He went into Gettysburg college to go into the medical field.

• He later attended Harvard where he earned his MD.

Contributions

• He is best known for his work in retrovirus(RNA that can replicate host cells) oncogene(cancer causing genes). For which he won a Nobel award.

Theories

• Bishop thought that genetic damage may transform normal genes, or environmental factors such as toxic chemicals and radiation or viruses may trigger the cell to change into a malignant tumor. This theory changed the approach to cancer research.

Setbacks

• One of the only setbacks that Bishop encountered was that he kept changing his mind on what he wanted to become in the field of science .

Information/Picture places

• http://www.nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1989/bishop-autobio.html

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._Michael_Bishop

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nci-vol-8172-300_j_michael_bishop.jpg

• http://www.ucsf.edu/sites/default/files/bishop_300.jpg?1299273677

Alexander Fleming

BY: GARRETT LAKEY

Background

• Scottish Biologist and Pharmacologist.• Born August 6, 1881. Died March 11, 1955• Attended Royal Polytechnic Institute• Studied to become a physician at St. Mary’s

hospital in London where he graduated in 1906

• Joined research department at St. Mary’s and became assistant bacteriologist

Major Contributions

• Discovered enzyme lysozyme in 1923• Discovered the antibiotic Penicillin• Discovered penicillin by accident. • Often described as a careless lab technician,

Fleming returned from a two week vacation to find that mold had developed on an accidently contaminated staphylococcus culture plate. Upon examination of the mold, he noticed that the culture prevented the growth of staphylococci.

Theories

• He had a hypothesis that his own nasal mucus had antibacterial effects

Margaret Pittman

By: Courtney Parker

Early Life

Margaret was born in Arkansas in 1902

(she died in 1995)

Her father was a doctor; she and her siblings often helped him in his practice

She attended Hendrix College where she received a BA in mathematics and biology

Margaret earned a Ph.D from the University of Chicago in 1929

Contributions to Microbiology

• She began her career after the deadly Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918; this was important because society became dedicated to improving public health.

• By the age of thirty Pittman had achieved an international reputation for her studies and writings on pneumococcus pneumonia at the Rockafeler Institute.

• In 1936 she joined the National Institute of Health

• She was involved in the production, testing, and standardization of vaccines to prevent typhoid, cholera, pertussis (whooping cough)

• She pushed the concept that the effectiveness of a vaccine relays to its potency and she became known for her methods of testing the potency of vaccines.

• Margaret Pittman’s most major contribution was the whooping cough vaccine.

• She began working on a vaccine for pertussis in 1943

• There was a dramatic drop in the death rate within five years of implementing the vaccine

• The most major setback for Pittman was the toxic side effects of the pertussis vaccine.

Interesting Facts

• Pittman was chief of the Laboratory of Bacterial Products, Division of Biologics Standards, from 1957 until 1971

• She was the first woman to head a major laboratory at the National Institutes of Health

• Pittman helped research cholera in Pakistan with the Southeast Asia Treaty Organization from 1960 to 1970

Works Cited

"Margaret Pittman (1902-1995) - Encyclopedia of Arkansas." Margaret Pittman (1902-1995). Web. 31 Jan. 2013.

Kary Mullis

Background: Mullis was born on December 28, 1944 and is from Lenoir, North Carolina

Major Contributions to Microbiology:

His improvement of the polymerase chain reaction, Mullis has also invented a UV-sensitive plastic that changes color in response to light

How they made these contributions? In 1983, Mullis was working for Cetus Corp. as a chemist. That

spring, according to Mullis, he was driving his vehicle late one night with his girlfriend, when he had the idea to use a pair of primers to bracket the desired DNA sequence and to copy it using DNA polymerase, a technique which would allow a small strand of DNA to be copied almost an infinite number of times. Cetus took Mullis off his usual projects to concentrate on PCR full-time.

Any hypotheses or theories?In his 1998 autobiography, Mullis expressed disagreement

with the scientific evidence supporting climate change and ozone depletion, the evidence that HIV causes AIDS, and asserted his belief in astrology. Mullis claims climate change and the HIV/AIDS connection are due to a conspiracy of environmentalists, government agencies and scientists attempting to preserve their careers and earn money, rather than scientific evidence

Any setbacks? Not really, but in 1992, Mullis founded a business with the intent to sell pieces of jewelry containing the amplified DNA of deceased famous people like Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kary_Mullis

Works Cited

Joseph Lister By Aussi

Born in England in 1827.When he was 21, he went into the surgery part of medical field. The father of antiseptics.Listerine named after him.

Joseph Lister noticed that surgeons would often not wash their hands or use sterile equipment after treating other sick patients, or even after performing autopsies. People often died from an infection soon after surgery.

In 1864, Lister wanted to find a way to stop infection in “recovering” patients. He noticed that carbolic acid had been used to kill germs in cows, so he figured that it would kill them in humans as well.

One year later, Lister tested this theory by treating a small boy who had broken his leg and was bleeding from it badly. He washed the wound in carbolic acid and also soaked his bandages in it. The boy did not get an infection. The carbolic acid had worked as an antiseptic.

In 1869, Dr. Lister invented the carbolic spray pump. He would spray the acid into the air, killing airborne germs but having no effect on the patients. At first, surgeons did not support his theory, but soon enough, they began using his spray, saving tons of lives. Not long after, hospitals were required to wash their hands, use sterile equipment, and use antiseptic.

Works Cited!

• http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/broughttolife/people/josephlister.aspx

• http://www.skyriderforkids.com/doubletakes/blue/dt_blue_lister.html

• http://www.enotes.com/joseph-lister-reference/joseph-lister

Carl WoeseMcKinley McDowell

Biography• born 15 July 1928, Syracuse, New York• Woese attended Deerfield

Academy in Massachusetts, U.S.A.• He received a bachelor's degree

in mathematics and physics from Amherst College in 1950

• completed a Ph.D. in biophysics at Yale University in 1953▫his doctoral research focused on the

inactivation of viruses by heat and ionizing radiation.

• Woese died on December 30, 2012, following complications from pancreatic cancer

Hypothesis

• the originator of the RNA world hypothesis in 1967▫RNA world hypothesis proposes that self-

replicating ribonucleic acid (RNA) molecules were precursors to current life

• He was the Stanley O. Ikenberry Chair and was professor of microbiology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Contributions

•Woese is famous for defining the Archaea, a new domain or kingdom of life, in 1977 ▫a category of single-cell microbes

genetically distinct from the two groups previously believed to be what makes living organisms: prokaryotes, which include bacteria, and eukaryotes, which include plants and animals.

•phylogenetic taxonomy of 16S ribosomal RNA, a technique pioneered by Woese

•now standard practice

How?

•defined Archaea as a new domain•Woese redrew the taxonomic tree.

▫His system, based upon genetic relationships rather than obvious morphological similarities, divided life into 23 main divisions, all incorporated within three domains: Bacteria, Archea, and Eucarya.

Set backs• The acceptance of the validity of Woese's

classification was a slow and painful process. • Famous figures, including Salvador Luria and

Ernst Mayr, objected to his division of the prokaryotes. Not all criticism of him was restricted to the scientific level.

• Journal Science said Woese was "Microbiology's Scarred Revolutionary”

• the growing amount of supporting data led the scientific community in general to accept the Archaea by the mid-1980s.

Sources

•http://www.in.com/carl-woese/biography-46835.html

•http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Carl_Woese/id/1946661

•http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/01/science/carl-woese-dies-discovered-lifes-third-domain.html?_r=0

Louis Pasteur

Early Life

•Was born on December 27, 1822•Was highly gifted in drawing and painting•Dole, France•Poor•Five children, 3 died of typhoid

Bio

•he was one of the most important founders of medical microbiology along with Ferdinand Cohn and Robert Koch

•Louis is remembered for his remarkable breakthroughs in the causes and preventions of diseases

Accomplishments

•Germ Theory of Disease•Reduced mortality from puerperal fever,

and he created the first vaccines for rabies and anthrax

•Invented a method to treat milk and wine in order to prevent it from causing sickness, now known as “Pasteurization”.

Germ Theory of Disease

•Louis Pasteur proved that fermentation is caused by the growth of micro-organisms and that the emergent growth of bacteria in nutrient broths is due not to spontaneous generation, but to biogenesis

After Life

•Louis Pasteur died on September 28, 1895 and his body now lies beneath the Institute Pasteur in Paris in a spectacular vault covered in depictions of his accomplishments in Byzantine mosaics

Edward JennerJaleah Barnes

Mrs. Colvard’s 3rd period

Born May 17, 1749 in Berkley Married Catherine Kingscote Earned his MD from the University of St

Andrews in 1972

Developed the first experimental vaccination using a related cow-pox virus.

He came up with the word vaccination He got an eight year old boy to be his lab

rat by infecting him with cowpox. The boy stayed became ill but the symptoms didn’t last long. Six weeks later he infected him with small pox. The disease didn’t catch thus, the vaccine was found.

http://www.westerncultureglobal.org/jenner.html