Microbiologists of the Past (and Present) by Anna Thompson-Strider

Hans Christian Gram

2020-09-24 21:09:53 UTC

Hans Christian Gram lived from 1852 to 1938. He studied plants at University of Copenhagen before going on to attain his M.D. there. He was a Dutch bacteriologist who spent a lot of time working in pharmacology. Gram was born just after the first atomic bomb was dropped. The use of the atomic bomb, among other inventions, had recently demonstrated the economic power that investments in science could yield. These historically large investments in the sciences helped to spur on the second industrial revolution during Gram’s life.

Gram's most significant accomplishment was discovering the Gram stain process. This process was invented in 1882. What is impressive about this discovery is that it was made long before the invention of the electron microscope. So, at this time the structures that cause the difference between gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria could not be seen with any detail. He made this discovery while studying lung tissue from patients that had died of pneumonia. He realized that some strains of bacteria were creating pneumonia-causing damage to the cells at a faster rate than others. It turns out that this difference in the rate of cell damage by the different bacteria is caused by the different structures of the two types of bacteria. Some were gram-negative and thus had thin cell walls and outer membranes. Other bacteria were gram-positive and thus had thick cell walls and no outer membrane.

Gram did not discover the safranin stain. His process ended at the third step in the process (<-click to view). In his original three-step process gram-positive bacteria would appear purple and gram-negative bacteria would appear colorless. When the final step with the safranin stain was later discovered, it was widely adopted because it helped to differentiate gram-negative bacteria from other things that do not absorb the crystal violet.

Since Gram lived before the age of information, not much is known about him beyond his discovery of the Gram stain. Throughout his life, he was a professor of both pharmacology and medicine, and through that work, he influenced medical practice in Denmark. However, the Gram staining process lives on as an important step in classifying bacteria.

REBECCA LANCEFIELD Rebecca Craighill Lancefield was a great and famous Microbiologist who was born on January 5th 1895 in Staten Island New York. In 1918 she joined the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research which is known today as Rockefeller University, where she had a long and accomplished career for about six decades. Lancefield received her PHD from Columbia University in 1925 in Immunology and Bacteriology, among other degrees. As a microbiologist she was devoted in researching about Streptococcal bacterium. Her studies in this research helped to prove that one type of Streptococcal bacterium can cause a number of diseases, like Erysipelas, or a Sore throat or even Scarlet Fever. These were previously believed to be caused by different or specific Streptococcal bacterium. Her discovery through this research led to more effective way of treating streptococcal infections related to conditions like Rheumatic fever, Scarlet fever and Glomerulonephritis (an acute inflammation of the Kidney). Lancefield had a huge range of Streptococcus that she discovered two more groups known as Group A Streptococci surface protein, the T –antigen and the R –antigen in 1940 and 1957, and also, Group B Streptococci that lacked M-protein, (M-protein is a virulence factor that can be produced by certain species of streptococci.) Lancefield’s work on streptococcus cannot be enumerated enough, her dedication and commitment in research on streptococcus bacterium earned her many recognitions and award among other things. In 1943, she was the second woman to become President of the Society of American Bacteriologist, 1961 she became the first woman to be President of the American Association of Immunologist. She was awarded honorary Doctor of Science by Rockefeller University where her Laboratory is functioning till this day. The T. Duckett Jones award, the Medal of the New York Academy of Medicine to mention only but a few. Rebecca Lancefield died in 1981 at the age of 86 years old. She had a fall from the previous year, broke her hip and never recovered from the incident. The Science world will forever remember her for her great dedications and the changes she brought with her research. ( AWUJO)

2020-10-07 05:45:55 UTC

Paul Ehrilich

2020-10-08 02:39:10 UTC

Paul Ehrilich was born March 14, 1854 in Strzelin, Poland and died August 20 1915 in Bad Homburg, Germany. He was a German biochemist, also known as the father of chemotherapy that developed a chemical theory to explain the body’s immune response and did important work in chemotherapy, creating the term magic bullet. He envisioned just like a bullet fired from a gun to hit a specific target, there could be a way to specifically target invading microbes. His research led to the discovery of ‘Salvarsan” a drug used to treat syphilis, which led him to receive the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in1908.
by Jennifer Cowson

Alexandre Yersin was known as a Swiss and French physician and bacteriologist. He was born in Switzerland on September 22, 1863 and passed away in the year 1943. He studied in many places such as Germany, France, and China. Yersin was famous for his discovery of Yersin pestis, and this is a bacillus bacteria that was responsible for the bubonic plague in China in 1894. He was called upon the French government to help come to the conclusion of what was the component that was causing the plague. For a certain reason, Yersin could not enter Chinese hospitals so he worked in a small hut with limited equipment to use.

2020-10-09 01:49:18 UTC

(Yessica Garcia)

Ronald Ross

2020-10-09 05:47:53 UTC

Ronald Ross lived from May 13th, 1857 to September 16th, 1932. He was a medical Doctor, a polymath who wrote several poems, composed songs and published many novels. Not to mention he was also an artist and a mathematician. Though he primarily worked as Doctor in the Indian Medical Service for 25 years. After that he joined the faculty of Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine where he became Professor and Chairman of the institute for 10 years. Last but not least he became Director in Chief of the Ross Institute and Hospital for Tropical Diseases. Ronald Ross was famous for all of these reasons and because of his biggest accomplishment which is why he won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902. His biggest accomplishment being his work on the transmission of malaria, discovering the malarial parasite in the gastrointestinal tract of a mosquito in 1897 which proved that malaria was transmitted by mosquitoes. This is what made the foundation for the method of combating the disease. ~ (Josiah Allred)

Major Walter Reed

sampsonleann35 — 2020-10-09 06:20:04 UTC

Walter Reed was a U.S. Army Physician who lived from September 13, 1851 to November 22, 1902. He was the youngest ever to receive his MD from the University of Virginia at the age of 17. In 1870 he received his second MD from New York University Bellevue Hospital Medical College and worked for New York board of health until 1875 when he enlisted as an assistant surgeon in the Army medical corp. During the next 16 years he moved to different outpost where he was responsible for American military, their dependents, and various aboriginal American tribes. This is where Walter Reed came to realize the devastation that epidemics could cause, and he raised concerns about sanitary conditions. During one of Reeds last tours he completed coursework in pathology and bacteriology at Johns Hopkins University Hospital. In 1896 Major Walter Reed distinguished himself a a medical investigator proving Yellow fever was not a result of drinking river water near the Potomac River. In 1898 during the Spanish-American war Reed and his colleagues proved typhoid fever was a result of contact with food or drink contaminated by flies causing that epidemic. However he is most known for disproving common beliefs about the transmission of yellow fever proving that it was transmitted through infected mosquito bites. This discovery lead to freeing Havana from Yellow fever in 1901 paving the way for future operations such as the building of the Panama Canal in 1904. Major Walter Reed truly an extraordinary man who contributed a great deal towards modern day epidemiology

Alice Catherine Evans

2020-10-09 18:07:25 UTC

Father of Immunology

bcwilliams3 — 2020-10-09 18:54:05 UTC

Cx

2020-10-09 19:22:04 UTC

2020-10-09 21:40:16 UTC

Joseph Lister was born April 5, 1827 in Great Britain. He is best known for his discovery of his antiseptics. Antisepsis prevents infection by destroying germs. This whole idea was introduced before the concept of germs was widely accepted. Most medical breakthroughs at the time were easy to see and therefore, easy for scientists to understand. The concept of germs was dismissed by doctors and scientists for many years. Lister experienced a lot of resistance when he was trying to spread awareness of how important the use of antiseptics was.In 1876, at the United States Centennial Convention, Joseph Lister and hundreds of other scientists brought the best inventions and discoveries of the time to Philadelphia. For three hours at the convention, Lister explained the concept of antiseptics to the top doctors and medical experts in the world. His theories were backed by a significant amount of scientific evidence, yet he was still met by inexplicable resistance by the medical experts in the United states. Ultimately, Alexander Graham Bell won the convention for his discovery of the telephone and the concept of antiseptics was not accepted by doctors until years later. Lister developed the concept of antisepsis by using observations from Louis Pasteur's experiments. He realized that the same small little microorganisms that cause wine to ferment, are also the same microorganisms that cause infection. He began using carbolic acid as an antiseptics and created a sterile environment in his hospitals. The dramatic result was a significant decrease in death and infection.

2020-10-10 00:59:57 UTC

Chrissy Kempf

2020-10-10 01:58:29 UTC

Heinrich Anton de Bary

jasminsherman11 — 2020-10-11 21:55:16 UTC

Jasmin Sherman

Anna Thompson

Microbiology 210

08 October 2020

Heinrich Anton de Bary a German surgeon, botanist, microbiologist, and mycologist was born in Frankfurt, Germany and lived from January 26, 1831 and passed away January 19, 1888. He is best known for his careful and extensive studies of the life of fungi, and also the contribution of algae and higher plants. Heinrich is also considered to be the founding father of phytopathology (plant pathology). After graduating de Bary began practicing medicine but soon after was drawn back to botany, which is the scientific study of plants. De Bary gave up his medical practice Privatdozent in botany at the university Tubingen. Later after the Franoco-Prussian War, de Bary became professor of botany at the rechartered University of Strassburg. Through the years de Bary’s studies demonstrated the sexuality of the fungi. He was able to see the necessity of observing life cycles and then attempted to follow them as far as he could in living plants. De Bary coined the word “symbiosis” in 1879, using it to mean “the living together of unlike organisms”

Hattie Elizabeth Alexandar

2020-10-20 05:55:21 UTC

Hattie Elizabeth Alexandar lived from 1901 until she lost her battle with cancer in 1968. Hattie attended Goucher College in Baltimore, Maryland graduating in 1923. She went on to work as a bacteriologist for the U.S. Public Health Services and Maryland Public Health Service. Due to her research experience she was admitted to medical school of John Hopkins University and excelled in her program, earning her M.D. in 1930.
Dr. Hattie Alexandar was honored with many exemplary awards and positions in her life such as receiving the E. Mead Johnson Award from the American Academy of Pediatrics in 1942, the Elizabeth Blackwell Award from the New York Infirmary in 1956, in 1961 she was the first woman to receive the Oscar B. Hunter Memorial Award of the American Therapeutic Society, and lastly in 1964 but certainly incredible, she became one of the first women to head a national medical association as president of the American Pediatric Society.
All of her awards and recognition stemmed from her development in 1939 of an effective cure for influenzal meningitis. Before she discovered this cure this illness was almost always fatal in infants and children and after the mortality rate dropped to 20%. She continued to study this influenzal meningitis through the 1940s and refine the serum so that this once fatal disease to infants was nearly eliminated.
From her work with influenzal meningitis she became interested in antibiotic-resistant bacteria. She made great progress in understanding the genetic mutation of bacteria to develop resistance to antibiotics.
During her lifetime she was a pediatrician, microbiologist, bacteriologist, and an educator/professor. After her discoveries she remained very active in public health and held many different highly regarded positions. Two short years after retiring in 1966 as professor emeritus at Columbia, she died at age 67 of cancer.
(Cheyenne Bakker)

Emil Adolf von Behring.

2020-10-28 17:36:03 UTC

Behring is known for the noble prize in Physiology medicine.
Behring went to Army Medical College because he and his family were not able to support him going to a University. In the years 1881-1883 Behring researched the important action of iodoform. He's studies showed that it did not kill microbes but would neutralize the poisons, making it antitoxic. He is remembered for his work on bacterial diseases and tuberculosis.
By: Kayrez Crawford

Robyn Warren and Barry Marshall

2020-10-30 01:34:23 UTC

Robyn Warren and Barry Marshall's partnership first began in 1981 when Marshall asked Warren to partake in a research project with him. Their research revolved around their discovery that gastritis and peptic ulcers come from bacterial infections in the stomach caused by Helicobacter pylori. Together, they completely changed the dogma surrounding Gastroenterology and changed the way peptic ulcers were treated. Many decades later, they won a jointed Nobel peace prize in 2005 due to their revolutionary research in medicine.
-Natalie Tomasello