Golden Age

18571914 Beginning with Pasteurs work, discoveries included the relationship between microbes and disease, immunity, and antimicrobial drugs

Germ theory
The Germ Theory of Disease The germ theory is a fundamental tenet of medicine that states that microorganisms, which are too small to be seen without the aid of a microscope, can invade the body and cause certain diseases. 1876: Robert Koch proved that a bacterium causes anthrax and provided the experimental steps, Kochs postulates, to prove that a specific microbe causes a specific disease

Kochs postulates
Robert Koch proved that bacteria could cause diseases. Koch's postulates - Koch's systematic methodology in proving the cause of anthrax was generalized into a specific set of guidelines for determining the cause of infectious diseases. Thus, the following steps are generally used to obtain proof that a particular organism causes a particular disease: 1. The organism must be present in every case of the disease. 2. The organism must be isolated from a host with the corresponding disease and grown in pureculture. 3. Samples of the organism removed from the pure culture must cause the corresponding disease when inoculated into a healthy, susceptible laboratory animal. 4. The organism must be isolated from the inoculated animal and identified as being identical to the original organisms isolated from the initial, diseased host. Koch originally proposed the postulates in reference to bacterial diseases. However, with some qualifications, the postulates can be applied to diseases caused by viruses and other infectious agents as well.

Limitations
some viruses cannot be grown in artificial laboratory media a microorganism that is normally part of the normal flora of a host becomes capable of causing disease when introduced into a different environment in the host While a microorganism can be isolated from a human, the subsequent use of the organism to infect a healthy person is unethical. Fulfilment of Koch's postulates requires the use of an animal that mimics the human infection as closely as is possible.

Vaccination
1796: Edward Jenner inoculated a person with cowpox virus, who was then protected from smallpox Vaccination is derived from vacca, for cow The protection is called immunity

Magic Bullet birth of modern chemo

Medical microbiologists focused on the search for substances that could destroy pathogenic microorganisms without damaging the organism. Treatment with chemicals is chemotherapy. Chemotherapeutic agents used to treat infectious disease can be synthetic drugs or antibiotics. Ehrlich reasoned that if a compound could be made that selectively targeted a disease-causing organism, then a toxin for that organism could be delivered along with the agent of selectivity. "Magic bullet" would be created that killed only the organism targeted.

A problem with the use of the magic bullet concept as it emerged from its histological roots is that people confused the dye with the agent of tissue selectivity and antibiotic activity. The concept of a "magic bullet" was fully realized with the invention of monoclonal antibodies.

Antibiotics
Antibiotics are chemicals produced by bacteria and fungi that inhibit or kill other microbes Quinine from tree bark was long used to treat malaria 1928: Alexander Fleming discovered the first antibiotic Fleming observed that Penicillium fungus made an antibiotic, penicillin, that killed S. aureus 1940s: Penicillin was tested clinically and mass produced

Modern Developments in Microbiology

Bacteriology study of bacteria (deals with discoveries and roles of bacteria Mycology study of fungi (include medical, agricultural and ecological branches) Parasitology study of protozoa and parasitic worms Immunology study of immunity (vaccines and interferons are being investigated to prevent and cure viral diseases) Virology study of virus (originated during Golden Age of Microbiology Microbial genetics studies the mechanisms by which microbes inherit traits