Pioneers in Microbiology

Pioneers in Microbiology is a new web page where you can find articles on important historical scientists that have shaped the course of microbiology in Europe. Scroll down to see how your country contributed to microbiology in the past. Contact FEMS Central Office if you would like to contribute to this overview.

Pioneers

"De contagionibus et contagiosis et eorum curatione" - Contagium vivum cause infective diseases

Observed "little animals"

”Opera medico-physica” - First one who connected Fracatorius concept and Leeuwenhoek discovery

First scientific Small pox vaccination

Advocated washing hands to stop the spread of disease

Disproved spontaneous generation

Supported Germ Theory of Disease

Practiced antiseptic surgery

Description of the bacillus of Leprosy

First proof of Germ Theory of Disease with B. anthracis discovery

Growth of Bacteria on solid media

• Robert Koch -

Outlined Kochs postulates

• Paul Ehrlich

Developed acid-fast Stain

1884  Christian Gram

Developed Gram Stain

First Rabies vaccination

1887  R.J. Petri -

Invented Petri Dish

1892  Dmitri Iosifovich Ivanovski

Discovered viruses

1899  Martinus Beijerinck - The Netherlands

Recognized viral dependence on cells for reproduction

Proved mosquitoes carried the yellow fever agent

Serolgy diagnosis of Syphilis

Discovered cure for syphilis

Recognized bacteriofages

Discovered Penicillin

DNA structure, mechanism of replication, genetic transfer

Establishment of microbial ecology and aquatic microbiology-

Isolated, syntesised and proved regulatory function in genetics of RNA and DNA

Developed a method to sequence DNA

Discovery of HIV as the cause of AIDS

Polymerase Chain Reaction invented

First microbial genomic sequence published -H. influenzae-

Helicobacter pylori is the cause of peptic ulcer

Structure of the ribosome solved