| The German physician Robert Koch (1843-1910) | | | | tuberculosis bacterium in 1882 and his studies in |
| contributed so much to the field of microbiology and | | | | tuberculosis later resulted in his winning the Nobel |
| infectious diseases. A contemporary of Louis Pasteur, | | | | Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1905. |
| Koch worked as a physician most of his life. | | | | He is also recognized for his work in Africa with |
| Some of the great contributions to the field of | | | | Trypanosoma and tick borne spirochetes. |
| microbiology and infectious diseases include identifying | | | | But what many think his greatest contribution in |
| the bacterium that causes anthrax (Bacillus anthracis) | | | | microbiology and infectious diseases is his formulation |
| in 1877. He recognized both the actively dividing cells | | | | of four postulates that associate a particular |
| and the dormant cells (spores) and developed | | | | organism with a specific disease. |
| techniques for studying them outside the body. | | | | Koch's postulates are as following: |
| Another great contribution, which microbiologists | | | | 1. The specific causative agent must be found in |
| today can be thankful for, is developing a way to | | | | every case of the disease. |
| grow bacteria in pure culture. After trying different | | | | 2. The disease organism must be isolated in pure |
| media (potato slices, gelatin, etc) he used a cooking | | | | culture. |
| thickener (agar) which created a firm surface so the | | | | 3. Inoculation of a sample of the culture into a |
| bacteria could be spread very thinly over the surface. | | | | healthy, susceptible animal must produce the same |
| The micro organism is spread so thinly that individual | | | | disease. |
| organisms are separated from each other. Then after | | | | 4. The disease organism must be recovered from the |
| time, each individual organism would multiply to form | | | | inoculated animal. |
| a visible colony from its millions of descendents. | | | | Implied in Koch's postulates are the one organism-one |
| Koch's discovery of the method of preparing pure | | | | disease concept and it provided the method of |
| culture of bacteria allowed German microbiologists to | | | | establishing the germ theory of disease. |
| advance well ahead of microbiologists of France and | | | | Robert Koch had many other accomplishments in the |
| other nations who were still using broth culture and | | | | field of microbiology and infectious diseases and was |
| successive dilutions to get a single organism. | | | | well respected on the continents of Africa and Asia |
| Other work attributed to Koch includes the | | | | for his work. |
| discoveries of Vibrio cholera in 1883 and the | | | | He died on May 27, 1910 from a heart attack. |