Category Archives: History of Microbiology

“Baruch Blumberg: Over achiever!”

History of Microbiology, ,

It is fitting that the person credited with discovering Hepatitis B, developing a diagnostic test for Hepatitis B and developing the Hepatitis B vaccine, should have the initials BB.

93px-Baruch_Samuel_Blumberg_by_Tom_Trower_(NASA)

In 1964, he discovered a surface antigen for hepatitis B in the blood of an indiginous Australian. This is why it was initially called the “Australian Antigen”. In the years that followed his team developed both a diagnostic test and a vaccine for Hepatitis B.

He was also involved with identifying prions as the infectious agent of kuru.

He received the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1976. (shared with D. Carleton)

He died in 2011, aged 85, collapsing shortly after giving a presentation to NASA scientists.

It is thought that through his work on Hepatitis B, he has prevented more deaths from cancer than any other human….

Over-achiever indeed. It is not impossible that in the course of history, his name will become as prominent in the world of microbiology as those of Pasteur and Koch….

For more on Baruch Blumberg, click here for a short biography.

Michael

“Albert Neisser: gonorrhoeae or meningitidis?”

History of Microbiology, ,

Neisseria gonorrhoeae actually….

"Albert Neisser. How a microbiologist should look..."
“Albert Neisser. How a microbiologist should look…”

Albert Ludwig Sigesmund Neisser was born in 1855 in Schweidnitz (now in Poland). He demonstrated the aetiological agent of gonorrhoea on microscopy in 1879, and the bacterium was named after him. Neisseria gonorrhoeae was not isolated in pure culture until 1885.

Neisser specialised in dermatology and sexually transmitted diseases and his other major discovery was as “co-founder” of the aetiological agent of leprosy, Mycobacterium leprae. (There was some dispute between Gerhard Hansen and Neisser over who had actually discovered the micro-organism first…

And what about Neisseria meningitidis? It was actually discovered by an Austrian bacteriologist called Anton Weichselbaum in 1887. It was initially called Diplococcus intracellularis meningitidis (!), but someone sensibly changed it to Neisseria meningitidis in due course.

Albert Neisser died of septicaemia in 1916, at the age of 61.

For a nice biography on the life and works of Albert Neisser, click here (about a 5 minute read)

Michael

“Was Joseph Lister the discoverer of Listeria monocytogenes?

History of Microbiology, , ,

No, wrong century….

Joseph Lister (1827-1912) was a surgeon who pioneered anti-septic surgery while working at Glasgow Royal Infirmary (where I did my microbiology training…)

88px-PSM_V52_D596_Joseph_Lister

In 1867, Lister utilised carbolic acid (phenol) to sterilise both surgical instruments and disinfect wounds, leading to reductions in post-operative infections. All this was done long before the “germ theory” of infection was completely understood. Impressive indeed.

So who discovered Listeria monocytogenes?

The credit for this goes to a man called Everitt Murray (1890-1964) Murray was born in South Africa, but discovered Listeria in 1926 whilst working as a bacteriologist in laboratories in Cambridge, England. Along with his colleagues, he noticed that the bacterium was infecting and killing experimental rabbits in the laboratory. Initially it was named Bacterium monocytogenes, then Listerium monocytogenes, and finally Listeria monocytogenes in 1940, in order to honour Joseph Lister’s work on surgical antisepsis. The monocytogenes refers to the peripheral monocytosis often seen in animals infected with this bacterium.

It was not until much later that Listeria monocytogenes was recognised as a foodborne pathogen, possibly as late as 1981.

Listeria monocytogenes is interesting in its ability to both harmlessly colonise and to cause devastating infection. See “The Danger Period”.

I guess Joseph Lister is probably one of the few surgeons to have had a bacterium named after him…

Michael

p.s. I have added a few MCQs on Hepatitis B serology to the website.