Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch(German) Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch; December 11, Clausthal-Zellerfeld - May 27, Baden-Baden) - German microbiologist. He discovered the anthrax bacillus, Vibrio cholera and the tuberculosis bacillus. Winner of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, awarded for his research into tuberculosis.
Early life
Robert Koch was born on December 11, 1843 in Clausthal-Zellerfeld, the son of Hermann and Mathilde Henriette Koch. He was the third of thirteen children. From childhood, encouraged by his grandfather (mother's father) and uncle - amateur naturalists, he was interested in nature.
In 1848 he went to the local primary school. At this time he already knew how to read and write.
Having finished school well, Robert Koch entered the Clausthal gymnasium in 1851, where four years later he became best student in class.
Higher education
In 1862, Koch graduated from high school and then entered the famous scientific traditions University of Göttingen. There he studied physics, botany, and then medicine. The most important role Many of his university teachers, including anatomist Jacob Henle, physiologist Georg Meissner and clinician Karl Hesse, played a role in shaping the future great scientist’s interest in scientific research. It was their participation in discussions about microbes and the nature of various diseases that sparked young Koch's interest in this problem.
Koch's work brought him wide fame and in the year, thanks to the efforts of Conheim, Koch became a government adviser at the Reichs Public Health Office in Berlin.
On March 24, 1882, when he announced that he had isolated the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, Koch achieved the greatest triumph of his entire life. At that time, this disease was one of the main causes of death. In his publications, Koch developed the principles of “obtaining evidence that a particular microorganism causes certain diseases.” These principles still form the basis of medical microbiology.
Cholera
Koch's study of tuberculosis was interrupted when, on instructions from the German government, he went to Egypt and India as part of a scientific expedition to try to determine the cause of cholera. While working in India, Koch announced that he had isolated the microbe that causes the disease, Vibrio cholerae.
Resuming work with tuberculosis
In 1885, Koch became a professor at the University of Berlin and director of the newly created Institute of Hygiene. At the same time, he continues his research into tuberculosis, focusing on finding ways to treat the disease.
In 1890, Koch announced that such a method had been found. He isolated a sterile liquid containing substances produced by the tuberculosis bacillus during its life - tuberculin, which caused allergic reaction in patients with tuberculosis. However, in practice, tuberculin was not used to treat tuberculosis, since it did not have any special therapeutic properties; on the contrary, its administration was accompanied by toxic reactions and caused poisoning, which became the reason for its sharpest criticism. Protests against the use of tuberculin subsided after it was discovered that the tuberculin test could be used in the diagnosis of tuberculosis, which played a major role in the fight against tuberculosis in cows.
Awards
In 1905, Robert Koch was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his “research and discoveries concerning the treatment of tuberculosis.” In his Nobel lecture, the laureate said that if you look back at the path “that has been traveled in last years In the fight against such a widespread disease as tuberculosis, we cannot help but note that the first important steps have been taken here.”
Koch was awarded many awards, including the Prussian Order of Honor, awarded by the German government in the year, and honorary doctoral degrees Universities of Heidelberg and Bologna. He was also a foreign member of the French Academy of Sciences, the Royal London scientific society, British Medical Association and many other scientific societies.
Contribution to science
Robert Koch's discoveries made an invaluable contribution to the development of healthcare, as well as to the coordination of research and practical measures in the fight against infectious diseases such as typhoid fever, malaria, plague cattle, sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis) and human plague.
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See what "Robert Koch" is in other dictionaries:
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Koch, Robert- Robert Koch. KOCH (Koch) Robert (1843 1910), German microbiologist, one of the founders of bacteriology and epidemiology. Works on identifying pathogens of infectious diseases and developing methods to combat them. Formulated the criteria... ... Illustrated Encyclopedic Dictionary
Robert Koch (12/11/1843, Clausthal, ≈ 5/27/1910, Baden-Baden), German microbiologist, one of the founders of modern bacteriology and epidemiology. Graduated from the University of Gottingen (1866). In 1872≈80, a sanitary doctor in Wolstein (now... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia
Róbert Bárány outstanding otorhinolaryngologist, Nobel Prize laureate in physiology or medicine Date of birth: April 22, 1876 ... Wikipedia
Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch Robert Koch Date of birth: December 11, 1843 (18431211) Place of birth: Clausthal Zellerfeld Date of death: May 27, 1910 Place of death ... Wikipedia
Wikipedia has articles about other people with this surname, see Koch. Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch ... Wikipedia
- (Koch, Robert) (1843 1910), German bacteriologist, one of the founders of modern microbiology and epidemiology, awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1905 for the discovery and isolation of the causative agent of tuberculosis. Born 11... ... Collier's Encyclopedia
German physician and scientist Robert Koch (1843-1910) received the Nobel Prize for his microbiological work against tuberculosis. He also created many fundamental methods for microbiological research, some of which are still used today.
A lifetime's work
At the end of the 19th century, tuberculosis killed almost a third of all middle-aged adults in Europe. Doctors and scientists of that time made numerous attempts to find a cure. Koch Robert was no exception, the fight against this serious illness became his mission, the work of his whole life. Despite making enormous progress in the identification and potential treatment of this disease, even receiving the Nobel Prize in Medicine for this work, the scientist never stopped improving research methods that have had big influence for all microbiology.
Youth and choice of profession
The parents of the future scientist were poor miners who were amazed at what a capable boy fate had given them. Born in 1843 in Clausthal (Germany), Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch was a true child prodigy as a child. At the age of five he was already reading newspapers, and a little later he became interested in classical literature and was a chess expert. Interest in science began in high school, where biology was chosen as a favorite subject.
In 1866, at the age of 23, Heinrich Robert Koch received his M.D. degree and spent the next decade working as a physician in various hospital and government scientific societies. In 1876, he published his major research into the disease anthrax, which brought him widespread fame. A few years later he was appointed advisor to the health bureau, where he spent most of his time dealing with problems related to tuberculosis.
Determining the cause of tuberculosis
Modern medicine knows many causes of most diseases. In the times when Koch Robert lived, this knowledge was not so common. One of the scientist's first important discoveries was the identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes this fatal disease. Robert Koch, while studying the causes of infection, deliberately infected guinea pigs material from one of three infected animals: monkeys, cattle and humans. As a result, it was found that the bacteria of the infected pigs were identical to those with which they were infected, regardless of the source of infection.
Koch's postulates
What contributions did Robert Koch make to microbiology? One of the most influential methods was the proposal that the causative agent of the disease could be identified with high degree confidence when four conditions are met, which later became known as Koch’s postulates. Here they are:
- The microorganism should cause disease in all organisms in which it is present in abundance, therefore they should not be present in uninfected organisms.
- The suspected microbe must be isolated and grown in its pure form.
- Reintroduction of the microbe should cause disease in previously uninfected organisms.
- The suspected microbe must be re-isolated from the test organism, grown in pure form, and identical to the originally isolated microbe.
Founder of bacteriology and microbiology
Among the diseases studied by the German physician Robert Koch (anthrax in 1876 and tuberculosis in 1882), there was also cholera in 1883. In 1905, the scientist was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. While still a medical student, Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch had a great interest in pathology and infectious diseases. As a doctor he worked in many small towns throughout Germany, and during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1872) he volunteered to the front as a military surgeon.
Later he was appointed as a local medical worker, whose main responsibility was to study the spread of infectious bacterial diseases. The application of biotechnology in medicine still relies heavily on Koch's principles to document the causes of infectious diseases. The great scientist died in 1910 in the Black Forest region (Germany), he was 66 years old.
Anthrax research
At the time Robert Koch lived, anthrax was widespread among farm animals in the Wöllstein area. The scientist did not have any scientific equipment at that moment, libraries and contacts with other scientists were inaccessible. However, this did not stop him, and he began to study this disease. His laboratory was a 4-room apartment, which was his home, and his main equipment was a microscope, a gift from his wife.
The Pollender, Rayer, and Davaine bacilli had previously been discovered as the causative agents of anthrax, and Koch set out to scientifically prove that this bacillus was in fact the cause of the disease. He inoculated mice using homemade wood chips with anthrax bacilli taken from the spleens of farm animals that had died from the disease. It was discovered that the death of the rodents occurred precisely as a result of the infection entering the blood of the animals. This fact confirmed the findings of other scientists who argued that the disease could be transmitted through the blood of animals suffering from anthrax.
Anthrax bacilli are resistant to the external environment
But this did not satisfy Koch. He also wanted to know whether these microbes could cause disease if they had never been in contact with any kind of animal organism. To solve this problem, he obtained pure cultures of the bacilli. Robert Koch, studying and photographing them, came to the conclusion that when unfavorable conditions they produce spores that can withstand lack of oxygen and other factors negative for bacteria. Thus, they can survive in the external environment for quite a long time, and when suitable conditions are created, they vitality are restored, bacilli emerge from the spores, capable of infecting living organisms into which they enter, despite the fact that they previously had no contact with them.
Robert Koch: discoveries and achievements
The results of his painstaking work on anthrax were demonstrated by Koch to Ferdinand Cohn, professor of botany at the University of Breslau, who gathered his colleagues to witness the discovery. Among those present was also Professor of Anatomical Pathology Konheim. Everyone was deeply impressed by Koch's work, and after the publication of a paper on the topic in a botanical journal in 1876, Koch immediately became famous. He continued, however, to work for Wöllstein for another four years, and during this period of time he improved his methods of recording, staining and photographing bacteria.
Life in Berlin
Later, already in Berlin, he continued to improve bacteriological methods, as well as invent new ones - growing pure bacteria in solid media, such as potatoes. The area in which Robert Koch continued to work, microbiology, remained his narrow specialty until recently. He also developed new methods of staining bacteria that made them more visible and helped identify them. The result of all this work has been the introduction of methods by which pathogenic bacteria can be simply and easily obtained in pure culture, free from other organisms, and by which they can be detected and identified. Two years after arriving in Berlin, Koch discovered the tuberculosis bacillus, as well as a method for growing it in its pure form.
Fighting cholera
Koch was still busy working against tuberculosis when, in 1883, he was sent to Egypt as leader of a German commission to investigate an outbreak of cholera in that country. Here he discovered Vibrio, which causes the disease, and brought pure cultures to Germany. He also dealt with a similar issue in India. Based on his knowledge of the biology and mode of spread of Vibrio cholerae, scientists formulated rules for combating the epidemic, which were approved by the Great Powers in Dresden in 1893 and formed the basis of control methods that are still used today.
Appointment to high positions
In 1885, Robert Koch, whose biography originates from a small town and a poor family, was appointed professor of hygiene at the University of Berlin. In 1890 he was appointed surgeon general, and in 1891 he became professor emeritus of the Faculty of Medicine and director of the new Institute of Infectious Diseases. During this period, Koch returned to his work in the fight against tuberculosis. He tried to stop the disease with a drug he called tuberculin, created from mycobacteria. Two versions of the drug were created. The first of which immediately caused significant controversy. Unfortunately, the healing power of this drug was greatly exaggerated, and the hopes placed on it were not justified. The new tuberculin (second version) was announced by Koch in 1896 and its medicinal value was also a disappointment, but it nevertheless led to the discovery of substances of diagnostic value.
And then plague, malaria, trypanosomiasis...
In 1896, Koch traveled to South Africa to study the origins of rinderpest. Despite the fact that the cause of this disease could not be found out, the outbreak was still contained. This was followed by work in India and Africa on malaria, Blackwater fever, trypanosomiasis, and rinderpest. The publication of his observations on these diseases was in 1898. Soon after his return to Germany, his travels around the world continued. This time it was Italy, where he confirmed Sir Ronald Ross's work on malaria and carried out useful work on the etiology of various forms of malaria and their control with quinine.
Contribution to microbiology: honorary prizes and medals
It was during these last years of his life that Koch came to the conclusion that the bacilli that cause tuberculosis in humans and cattle are not identical. His statement at the International Medical Congress against Tuberculosis in London in 1901 caused much controversy, but it is now known that Koch's point of view was correct. His work on typhus led to the idea that the disease was transmitted much more often from person to person than from person to person. drinking water, and this has led to new control measures.
In December 1904, Koch was sent to East Africa to study cattle fever, where he made important observations not only of the disease, but of the pathogenic Babesia and Trypanosoma species and tickborne spirochaetosis. Professor Robert Koch was awarded many prizes and medals, honorary membership in scientific societies and academies in Berlin, Vienna, Naples, New York and others. He was awarded the German Order of the Crown, the Grand Cross of the German Order of the Red Eagle. In a number of countries, memorials and monuments were erected in honor of the great microbiologist. Dr. Koch died on May 27, 1910 in Baden-Baden.
Germany has produced many innovative scientific minds over the centuries, with one of the greatest scientists of his time being Robert Heinrich Hermann Koch, who laid the foundation for the study of bacteriology and helped explain the causes and possible treatments for various bacterial diseases.
He was a fearless researcher, as he was responsible for carrying out unprecedented efforts to study such life-threatening diseases such as anthrax, tuberculosis and many others. This erudite scientist also played an important role in the creation of modern laboratories. Robert Koch was not just a gifted scientist, he was a genius, and the number of awards and medals he received throughout his life serves as the best proof of the contribution he made to world medical science.
Perhaps no infectious disease has had such a romantic aura as tuberculosis. This disease brought a piercing note of fatality to the work of the poet John Keats and the Bronte sisters, Moliere and Chekhov. But in real life, consumption turned out to be not at all romantic, but on the contrary - dirty and painful. Along with languid pallor came weakness, debilitating cough, pulmonary hemorrhage and death. This nightmare reality for thousands of people was given the name “white plague”, because it carried away not less lives than the “black” plague, bubonic, simply killed slowly. It is not surprising that the man who “introduced” the world to the causative agent of tuberculosis and gave hope of defeating it was awarded the Nobel Prize. Wording of the Nobel Committee: "for his research and discoveries concerning the treatment of tuberculosis." And this man's name was Robert Koch.
Figure 1. Rudolf Vierhof (1821–1902). German doctor, histologist, pathologist and much more, as well as political figure with a penchant for reform. Added cell theory Schwann and Schleiden and struck a blow at the then popular hypothesis of spontaneous generation of organisms the great thesis “Omnis cellula e cellula” (“A cell comes only from a cell”). He established the structure of many tissues and organs and described the pathogenesis of several diseases. At the same time, he brought German sanitation to a completely different level, guided by the idea that doctors are “natural advocates for the poor,” and therefore should take an active part in resolving social issues.
Speaking about tuberculosis, we remember not only the classics of the Victorian era, but also Koch’s bacilli, and tuberculin (an antigen in the Mantoux reaction), also Koch’s, and Koch’s postulates, and with them the name of an outstanding scientist, a man for whom tuberculosis became a triumph and tragedy - Robert Koch.
Koch was born on December 11, 1843 in the town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld in Lower Saxony in the family of a mining engineer. Robert turned out to be a very gifted child - already at the age of five he amazed his parents by learning to read on his own by looking at newspapers. At the same age he was sent to primary school, and three years later he entered the gymnasium. Koch studied with pleasure and showed a clear interest in biology. Which, obviously, determined his further choice: in 1862 he entered the University of Göttingen, where he became interested in medicine. It was here, in Göttingen, that the famous anatomist Jacob Henle, whose works were the first signs in the field of microbiology, taught at that time. Perhaps it was his lectures that aroused young Koch’s interest in researching microbes as causative agents of various diseases.
In 1866, Robert Koch received his doctorate in medicine and worked for six months at the famous Berlin Charité clinic - under the leadership of the great Rudolf Virchow. By the way, it was Virchow who would regularly criticize Koch’s microbial theory, oppose the dissemination of his discoveries, and even interfere with his career. At first, Virchow generally directly told the student not to waste time on nonsense and to treat people.
But the following year Koch marries Emma Fratz and gets a position in a hospital in Hamburg. For another two years, the young family moves from city to city until they finally settle in Rakvitsa, where Koch gets a job at a local mental hospital. But it seems that a measured life is not for him at all. Despite severe myopia, Koch passes the exam to become a military doctor and goes to the field hospitals of the Franco-Prussian War that began in 1870, where he encounters not so much surgical practice as cholera and typhoid fever, which are spreading at lightning speed in the trenches.
A year later, Robert was demobilized, and in 1872 he received the post of district health officer in Wolstein. It was during this period that he received a gift from his wife for his 28th birthday - a new microscope. And soon medical practice fades into the background: Koch disappears all day long behind the eyepiece of the gift. And the outbreak of anthrax among local cattle and small ruminants comes in very handy.
Anthrax is not transmitted directly (like influenza or diphtheria) between people or animals, but its infectious agents - endospores of the anthrax bacillus - can persist in the soil (especially in cattle burial grounds) for decades, even centuries, “germinating” when they enter the body. These spores are extremely resistant to physical and chemical factors, they are relatively easy to produce (it takes thousands of spores to make a person sick); the pulmonary form of the disease is often fatal even with antimicrobial therapy. That is why both the military and terrorists have chosen these bacteria. Everyone probably remembers the 1995 sarin attack on the Tokyo subway, organized by the sectarians Aum Senrikyo (now Aleph). But about spraying a suspension of spores and cells with them B. anthracis in the city of Kameido near Tokyo two years earlier, few people had heard (Fig. 3a). The terrorist attack failed: not a single person became infected, because the level of theoretical training and, apparently, the unavailability of other biomaterial prompted the sectarians to spray a veterinary vaccine strain (Sterne 34F2), devoid of full pathogenicity due to the inability to form a capsule. Well, at least the stench, they say, was a success...
But the second, widely known, bioterrorist attack using this wand in 2001 sent five people to the next world, another 17 fell ill, but survived. Of course, we're talking about about American “letters in an envelope” (Fig. 3b), containing endospores (strain Ames) quite suitable for infection. Two Democratic senators and five major news outlets received the envelopes. From the very beginning of the investigation into the terrorist attack, expert assistance was provided by Bruce Ivins, a microbiologist, anthrax vaccine developer, and senior researcher at the Medical research institute US Army Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID, Fort Detrick), where they previously developed biological weapons, and now - biosecurity (we will stick to the official version). However, in 2008, the respected scientist learned that the FBI was preparing an indictment in which he would be the only one accused in the 2001 attack. Having considerable mental problems (and at the same time getting a job in the defense industry without checking), Ivens took a lethal dose of the drug Tylenol PM(regular paracetamol with diphenhydramine). Most colleagues and even relatives of the victims of the attack deny the results of the investigation (he could not quietly prepare the biomaterial, he was an ardent Catholic, the choice of recipients was strange, etc.), and only the FBI probably believes that only one person was involved in the crime.
By 2015, 173 states had ratified the convention to renounce the development and stockpiling of biological weapons. However, it is difficult to control the execution of the contract, and in the caches of forts and former “ mailboxes» elite strains B. anthracis and other infectious agents are quietly dormant, awaiting the “peaceful use” permitted by the convention. Meanwhile, some types postal items in the USA they now sterilize, and inventive students recommend that suspicious letters be ironed before opening. Well, if they opened it, and there it is... Doctors will prescribe one of the antibiotics: penicillin, doxycycline or ciprofloxacin. In 2012, the FDA approved the treatment and (in special cases) emergency prevention of the pulmonary form with monoclonal antibodies ( Raxibacumab), neutralizing the lethal anthrax toxin.
Editorial.
The result of this painstaking work was a work that, with the assistance of Ferdinand Kohn, professor of botany at the University of Breslau, was published in 1876 in a leading botanical journal Beitrage zur Biologie der Pflazen, the brainchild of Cohn (who, by the way, classified bacteria as plants). Despite the protests of Virchow, who believed that diseases are internal in nature, and their cause is “cellular pathology,” Koch gains a certain popularity, but does not part with his tiny laboratory in Wolstein. For another four years he improved methods of staining and fixing microscopic preparations, and also studied various forms of bacterial infection of wounds. In 1878 he published his works on microbiology.
Fame bears fruit: in 1880, Robert Koch was appointed advisor to the Reich Health Office in Berlin. It is here that the scientist has the opportunity to assemble the best laboratory of his life. Research work immediately took off. Koch invents a new microbiological method - growing pure cultures of bacteria on solid media. For example, on potatoes. As well as new staining methods that make it easy to see and identify bacteria using a microscope. A year later, he published the work “Methods for the Study of Pathogenic Organisms” and entered into a debate with his colleague in the microbiological “workshop” Louis Pasteur regarding research into anthrax. Scientists unfold real war on the pages of scientific publications and in public speeches.
And it was in this laboratory, staffed with excellent personnel, equipped with powerful microscopes, the best materials and laboratory animals, that Koch began to study the main “killer” of that time - tuberculosis. The choice of topic, however, seemed strange to many of his colleagues: most experts considered consumption hereditary disease. After all, statistics showed that this disease most often spreads within families.
However, Dr. Koch considered tuberculosis to be a common “natural” infection. Working alone, secretly from his colleagues, he locked himself in the laboratory for almost six months - until he was able to isolate and grow a culture of the tuberculosis bacillus Mycobacterium(Fig. 4).
Figure 5. Vibrio cholerae ( Vibrio cholerae) under an electron microscope. The nucleoid and flagellum are colored orange. 30 years before Koch, the bacterium was described by Filippo Pacini as Filippo Pacini bacillum, but it was a time of pathogenic “miasma”, and the discovery was ignored. This mobile, single-flagellate, slightly curved rod (vibrio) lives in water. Only two serogroups out of 140 cause epidemic cholera: the action of their toxin provokes the loss of water and ions from intestinal cells, causing profuse diarrhea and vomiting, resulting in fatal dehydration. The toxin is encoded by a temperate bacteriophage embedded in one of the two chromosomes of Vibrio. Photo from www.humanillnesses.com.
On March 24, 1882, Koch presented his findings at the monthly meeting of the Society of Physiologists in Berlin (again, the malicious Virchow did not allow Koch to speak at a large meeting of Berlin physicians), truly dumbfounding his colleagues, who could not only argue reasonedly, but also applaud.
Seventeen days later - on April 10, 1882 - Koch published his lecture “The Etiology of Tuberculosis,” and the discovery of the causative agent of the fatal disease not only became news for major medical publications, but also made the front pages of leading newspapers around the world. Within a few weeks, “Koch” literally became a household name.
But Robert Koch did not rest on his laurels. He goes on a government scientific expedition to Egypt and India, where he hunts for the causative agent of cholera. And he finds it - he releases a microbe, which he calls Vibrio cholera(Fig. 5). This discovery brought him not only additional popularity, but also a prize of 100 thousand German marks.
But quite soon, in 1885, Dr. Koch returned to his “favorite” tuberculosis, now focusing on finding ways to treat this disease. By that time, he had already managed to disagree with his student Emil Bering: they argued not about one passage from St. Augustine, but about whether a person could become infected with tuberculosis from animals. Koch, by that time already a “bronze” authority, believed that he could not, and that the milk and meat of infected animals was safe. The student believed that Koch was wrong. The “great” did not tolerate this, and a rift occurred between them (although time showed that Bering was right).
Koch was in a hurry to discover his cure for tuberculosis. In 1890 he managed to isolate tuberculin- a substance produced by the tuberculosis bacillus in the process of life. The scientist believed that it could help in the treatment of consumption, and on August 4, 1890, without careful testing, he announced: a cure for tuberculosis had been found. A short and stormy triumph - after all, after the discovery of the causative agents of Siberia, consumption and cholera, there was no higher authority in medicine than Koch. But the triumph turned into tragedy and a wave of ostracism.
It turned out that tuberculin causes serious allergic reactions in patients with tuberculosis. Reports of deaths from tuberculin poured in. And then it turned out that the effectiveness of the medicine was low. Tuberculin vaccinations did not provide immunity to consumption.
Interestingly, seventeen years later it was precisely this effect of tuberculin that made it possible to use it for tuberculin test- a test that diagnoses tuberculosis. It was developed by the Austrian pediatrician, assistant to the immunologist Paul Ehrlich, Clemens Pirquet.
Figure 6. Clemens von Pirké (1874–1929). An Austrian aristocrat, a pediatrician who received an excellent education at leading European universities. In 1906 he introduced the term “allergy”. In 1907, he demonstrated to the medical community a tuberculin test: tuberculin was rubbed into a scratch on the patient’s forearm, and the reaction of the skin was used to determine whether he was infected with mycobacteria. Pirquet's test was later replaced by subcutaneous injection of tuberculin - according to the method of Charles Mantoux. Von Pirke committed suicide with his wife, who was constantly suffering from depression, by taking potassium cyanide. The scientist was nominated for the Nobel Prize five times, he also ran for the presidency of Austria, but... ordinary people know Pirquet only from the 50 euro coin (on right).
Nevertheless, Koch's career continues to advance. He was awarded the title of doctor 1st class and honorary citizen of Berlin. A year later, he becomes director of the newly created Institute of Hygiene in Berlin and professor of hygiene at the University of Berlin.
And again, the research streak (and the feeling of guilt, and the desire for revenge) does not allow Robert Koch to live in peace. In 1896, he travels to South Africa to study the origins of rinderpest. And although he was unable to determine the cause of the plague, he was able to localize outbreaks of this disease by injecting healthy animals with a preparation of bile from those infected. Koch then researched malaria, Black Water fever, and sleeping sickness in cattle and horses in Africa and India. He published the results of his titanic work in 1898 after returning to Germany.
At home, he continued his research and in 1901, at the International Congress on Tuberculosis in London, he made a statement that generated a lot of controversy in scientific circles: the bacilli of human and cow tuberculosis are different. The scientist was criticized, but time has shown that he was right (by the way, this was also the subject of a dispute between Koch and Bering, and here Bering was already mistaken; it is now known that tuberculosis in animals and humans can sometimes be caused by other, closely related M. tuberculosis, species of mycobacteria capable of overcoming the interspecies barrier).
In 1905, Robert Koch was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for his research and discoveries concerning the treatment of tuberculosis.” But already in 1906 he returned to Central Africa to continue work on the study of sleeping sickness (trypanosomiasis). He finds that synthesized by Ehrlich and Hata in 1905 atoxyl(not to be confused with modern enterosorbent made from silicon dioxide - then it was organic compound arsenic!) may be as effective against this disease as quinine against malaria.
Until the very end of his life, Koch continued research in serology and microbiology. He died on May 27, 1910 in a sanatorium in Baden-Baden. His death also led to interesting events. Robert Koch's body was cremated, but in Prussia at that time it was not legally allowed to bury urns in cemeteries. As a result, it was decided to create Koch’s mausoleum right in (Fig. 7). On December 10, 1910, a burial ceremony for the ashes took place. To this day you can visit this mausoleum, see a portrait of Koch, read the epitaph: “Robert Koch - work and success.” And just being alone with the great scientist is very difficult person, without a doubt, worthy of eternal memory and gratitude of humanity.
Figure 7. Koch Mausoleum, combined with a museum, at the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin. There are several monuments to R. Koch in the world, and on the 100th anniversary of that same Koch Nobel Prize, the Germans issued a stamp with a portrait of their great compatriot, and the European Academy of Natural Sciences established the Koch Medal, which is awarded to the best doctors and biologists.
And finally, it should be noted that this is the second text from the “Nobel Laureates” series, which was not created by me alone. Most it was written by a wonderful scientific and medical journalist and my longtime companion in life and work, Snezhana Shabanova.
Literature
- Keim P., Smith K.L., Keys Ch., Takahashi H., Kurata T., Kaufmann A. (2001). Molecular investigation of the Aum Shinrikyo anthrax release in Kameido, Japan. J. Clin. Microbiol. 39 , 4566–4567;
- Robert Koch. (1882). Die Aetiologie der Tuberculose. Berliner Klinische Wochenschrift. 19 , 221–230;
- The first "medical Nobel";
- Museum and mausoleum. Website of the Robert Koch Institute..
Department of Social and Historical Sciences
ABSTRACT
On the history of medicine
Robert Koch and his contribution to the development of microbiology and epidemiology
Performed:
Student of group 16,
1st year, Faculty of Medicine
Puzrenkova Yulia Dmitrievna
Checked:
teacher
Batanina Olga Vladimirovna
Novosibirsk, 2013
Plan
Introduction
The beginning of the journey…………………………………………………………………………………...4
Robert Koch and his discoveries……………………………………………………….. 5
· Anthrax……………………………………………………………… 5
· Koch's stick……………..…………………………………………………………………… 7
· Koch's postulates……………………………………………………………...8
Conclusion
Bibliography
Application
Introduction
This topic, in my opinion, is very relevant. After all, for a long time a person lived surrounded by “invisible creatures”, used them, or rather the products of their vital activity (for example, when baking bread from sour dough), suffered from them when these creatures caused illnesses or spoiled food supplies, but did not suspect about their presence. And only thanks to the pioneers of microbiology who became interested in this topic, we have an idea of the root causes of the phenomena described above.
One of these people is Robert Koch (Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch) (1843-1910) - a German doctor and microbiologist, one of the founders of modern bacteriology and epidemiology.
The purpose of this abstract is to study the contribution of R. Koch to the development of microbiology. To achieve the goal, the following tasks had to be solved:
1. consider the development of Robert Koch’s personality in a historical context;
2. consider scientific discoveries R. Koha;
3. analyze the importance of the scientist’s research for medicine and biology.
This work consists of an introduction, a conclusion and two chapters divided into paragraphs. The materials for writing this essay were: tutorial“Medical Microbiology” (Pozdeev O.K.), the journal “Microbiology, Epidemiology and Immunology”, as well as a number of other sources given in the list of references.
The beginning of the way
Robert Koch (Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch) (1843-1910) - German doctor and microbiologist, one of the founders of modern bacteriology and epidemiology, foreign corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1884).
Robert Koch (add., fig. 1) was born on December 11, 1843 in Clausthal-Zellerfeld. His parents were Hermann Koch, who worked in the mine administration, and Matilda Julia Henrietta Koch (Bivend). There were 13 children in the family, Robert was the third oldest child. Precocious, Robert began to be interested in nature early and collected a collection of mosses, lichens, insects and minerals. His grandfather, mother's father, and uncle were amateur naturalists and encouraged the boy's interest in studying the natural sciences.
When Robert entered the local primary school in 1848, he already knew how to read and write. He studied easily and in 1851 entered the Clausthal gymnasium. Four years later he was already the first student in his class, and in 1862 he graduated from high school.
Immediately after graduating from high school, Robert Koch entered the University of Göttingen, where he studied for two semesters. natural Sciences, physics and botany, and then began to study medicine. Many of his university teachers, including the anatomist Jacob Henle, the physiologist Georg Meissener, and the clinician Karl Hesse, played a vital role in shaping Koch's interest in scientific research. These scientists took part in discussions about microbes and the nature of various diseases, and the young Koch became interested in this problem.
Robert Koch and his discoveries
anthrax
Robert Koch began his work as a bacteriologist with the study of anthrax, epizootic 1 (widespread spread of an infectious disease among one or many species of animals in a certain territory, significantly exceeding the incidence rate usually recorded in this territory) which broke out in the Prussian town of Wolstein in the Bomst district, where he worked as a district doctor.
During this period, an anthrax epidemic occurred in the city of Bomst (add., Fig. 2). Koch found rods in sick sheep. He worked in a room he rented and where he also received patients. In dead mice, R. Koch found the same sticks and thin threads curling into balls as in sick sheep. A hypothesis arose about the transfer of anthrax by microorganisms he found.
To prove his hypothesis, he did cultures on a nutrient medium. By placing pieces of the spleen of infected mice in a hanging drop of the anterior chamber fluid of a bull's eye, he observed the growth of the pathogen, sporulation, and spore germination. The message “Etiology of Anthrax,” sent on May 27, 1876 to the famous bacteriologist and author of one of the classifications of bacteria Fernand Cohn, created a sensation, and despite the negative position of the pillars of German medicine of that time (Rudolf Vikhrov and Max Pettenkofer), it was recognized as a world discovery.
It is instructive to compare the approaches of Pasteur and Koch to solving scientific problems. Numerous critics and Koch himself accused Pasteur of being a “happy accident” of his discoveries. If Pasteur often replaced the lack of factual data with the highest intuition (for example, when studying fermentation), Robert meticulously sought to obtain all the necessary factors of the microbial origin of infectious diseases. Disagreeing with Pasteur in many respects, he understood that the discovery of the pathogen could be questioned, since according to the conditions of his experiments it was impossible to conclude that a truly pure culture of microbes had been obtained.
The method of diluting microbial cultures that existed at that time was labor-intensive and unreliable. Great prospects discovered the observations of I. Schröter about the ability of bacteria to form separate clusters - colonies on potatoes, paste or egg whites.
Initially, Koch settled on potato plates, but they had disadvantages: mobile bacteria moved quietly on a damp surface, the substrate used was opaque, which made it difficult to study colonies, and in addition, not all bacteria were able to grow on potatoes. Koch later began using gelatin, but many bacteria hydrolyzed the gelatin, liquefying the substrate, so gelatin had to be replaced with agar.
Koch then transferred bacteria from individual colonies into test tubes with gelatin frozen at an angle, obtaining pure culture colonies. The capabilities of the method of isolating pure cultures on solid nutrient media made it possible to clearly establish the etiological role of a particular pathogen and study its properties, which was impossible to do with broth cultures used until that time. Further, based on the experience of isolating pure cultures of pathogens, Koch developed the basic theoretical and practical principles of disinfection.
Koch stick
After Koch finds the causative agent of anthrax, he decides to start searching for the causative agent of tuberculosis (add., Fig. 3). The proximity of the Charite clinic, filled with tuberculosis patients, makes his task easier - every day, early in the morning, he comes to the hospital, where he receives material for research: not a large number of sputum or a few drops of patients' blood. However, despite the abundance of material, he still fails to detect the causative agent of the disease.
Koch soon realizes that the only way to achieve his goal is with the help of dyes. Unfortunately, ordinary dyes turn out to be too weak, but after several months of unsuccessful work, he still manages to find the necessary substances.
Koch grinds the tubercular tissue, stains it in methylene blue, then in Vesuvin (a caustic red-brown dye used for finishing leather), and looks. Clear blue tiny, slightly curved rods of an unusually beautiful hue become clearly visible on the preparation. Some of them float between the cellular substance, some sit inside the cells. Not believing himself, Koch again turns the micrometer screw, puts on and takes off his glasses again, presses his eye close to the eyepiece, gets up from his chair and looks while standing. The picture doesn't change.
This was already approximately the two hundred and seventy-first drug, Koch writes in his diary. And only now does it dawn on him what actually happened: he discovered the causative agent of tuberculosis, a universal scarecrow about which there was so much controversy.
Koch's postulates
Koch achieved his greatest triumph on March 24, 1882, when he announced that he had isolated the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. In Koch's publications on tuberculosis problems, principles were first outlined, which then became known as Koch's postulates:
1. The microorganism is detected in each case of a specific suspected disease.
3. After isolation from the patient’s body and isolation of a pure culture pathogen should cause a similar disease in a susceptible animal.
Currently, this triad has largely lost its significance, since it is of little use in relation to viral infections, the causative agents of which are difficult to isolate from the patient’s body. In addition, Koch's postulates are not necessary for some diseases (for example, typhoid fever, gonorrhea, malaria, etc.).
In 1885, Koch became a professor at the University of Berlin and director of the newly created Institute of Hygiene. At the same time, he continued his research into tuberculosis, focusing on finding ways to treat the disease. In 1890, he announced that such a method had been found.
Koch isolated the so-called tuberculin (a sterile liquid containing substances produced by the tuberculosis bacillus during growth), which caused an allergic reaction in patients with tuberculosis. However, in fact, tuberculin was not used to treat tuberculosis, since it did not have a special therapeutic effect, and its administration was accompanied by toxic reactions, which became the reason for its sharpest criticism. Protests against the use of tuberculin subsided only when it was discovered that the tuberculin test could be used in the diagnosis of tuberculosis. This discovery, which played a major role in the fight against tuberculosis in cows, was main reason awarding Koch the Nobel Prize in 1905.
Conclusion
Thus, the German physician Robert Koch made a great contribution to the development of microbiology. Robert Koch's discoveries made an invaluable contribution to the development of healthcare. In the emerging era of bacteriology, R. Koch carried out a number of major studies, which allowed his contemporaries to call the scientist the “father of bacteriology”:
· a technique was developed for obtaining pure cultures of microorganisms in the form of individual colonies on solid nutrient media, which made it possible to isolate and study a number of microorganisms;
· methods for staining microorganisms have been developed;
· disinfection methods have been developed;
· infection of experimental animals was introduced into laboratory practice to isolate pure cultures of pathogenic microbes;
· discovered and studied the causative agent of tuberculosis in humans and cattle (Koch bacillus);
· the causative agent of anthrax was discovered;
· developed a method for cultivating microorganisms on solid nutrient media
Thus, it can be argued that R. Koch laid the foundations modern techniques microbiological research, and also made an invaluable contribution to the development of microbiological science and medicine.
Bibliography:
1. Journal “Microbiology, Epidemiology and Immunology” No. 11/2, Moscow 1972, pp. 14-17
2. Internet source “Wikipedia” / http://ru.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koch,_Robert
3. Pozdeev O.K. “Medical microbiology”: textbook./Edited by V.I. Pokrovsky. – 4th edition, 2008, pp. 14-16
4. S.A. Blinkin “People of Great Courage” (Moscow 1963)
Application
Rice. 1 Robert Koch
Rice. 2 Anthrax
Rice. 3 Tuberculosis bacillus
Epizootic is a large-scale spread of an infectious disease among one or many species of animals in a certain territory, significantly exceeding the incidence rate usually recorded in this territory.
“The first of all researchers, the first of all people who have ever lived, Koch proved that a certain kind of microbe causes a certain disease and that small miserable bacilli can easily become the killers of a large formidable animal,” wrote Paul de Cruy.
Robert Koch is a German microbiologist, one of the founders of modern bacteriology and epidemiology. For the first time he isolated a pure culture of the causative agent of anthrax and proved its ability to form spores. Suggested methods of disinfection. Formulated the criteria for an etiological connection infectious disease with a microorganism (Koch triad).
Robert Koch was born on December 11, 1843 in the tiny German town of Krausthal. As a child, he loved to break and then repair his toys. He spent long hours doing this activity. When he grew up and went to the gymnasium, then, as befits a child of his age, he began to dream of distant countries and great discoveries. He wanted to become a ship's doctor and sail around globe. But after graduating from the medical faculty of the University of Göttingen in 1866, a modest position as a junior doctor in a mental hospital in Hamburg awaited him. Koch was not enthusiastic about treating people without reason. It seemed that in the future only boring routine medical practice awaited him. He moved from place to place and finally found himself in the role of district doctor in Wolstein ( East Prussia). Koch quickly won the respect of the villagers, and his medical practice began to bring him significant income. At the same time, thoughts about romantic travel and Koch’s achievements were not abandoned.
His bride, a sweet, simple girl, agreed to marry him on one condition: no jungle, no frigates: home, family, quiet, respected profession of a rural doctor. He resigned himself. His spirit was not humbled. On Koch’s 28th birthday, Emmy Fraatz, his wife, gave him a microscope to celebrate. She, of course, could not even think that this device would help her husband win world fame. The microscope, purchased as a toy, soon became the cause of marital discord. It took a lot of effort for Koch to tear himself away from his favorite instrument. As much as he was now keen on studying microbiology, he lost interest in medical practice. He didn't like to heal, he liked to explore.
The experiments of Louis Pasteur, who claimed that all diseases are caused by bacteria, excited the imagination of the young doctor. And Koch set up a primitive home laboratory and conducted his first microbiological studies. He knew nothing yet about the yeast broth invented by Pasteur, and his experiments were distinguished by the same primitive originality as the attempts of the first caveman to get fire. A fearless explorer of the invisible world of killers could easily become infected with a deadly disease. There was nothing to protect ourselves with: there were no tools or personal protective equipment.
He started with anthrax, which swept across Europe. Blood of a sheep killed anthrax, ended up on the stage of his microscope. By chance, he saw what others did not see: the bacteria that cause the disease, the mechanism of their reproduction and the insidious way of their self-preservation, allowing them to be reborn practically from oblivion. “Time and patience turn the mulberry leaf into silk,” says an Indian proverb. Koch did a gigantic job that required dedication, complete dedication. To pore over a microscope for days, weeks, months, to pave the way for the first time in the mysterious labyrinth of the microworld - only such a romantic as Koch could have decided to do this.
Thanks to a microscope and dyes, Kohu discovered amazing world incredibly small living creatures - microbes. Using the method he developed for cultivating bacteria previously discovered in the blood of anthrax patients, Koch proved that they are the causative agents of anthrax and are capable of forming resistant spores. This doctor's discovery explained how the disease spread. When he dealt with anthrax, it never occurred to him to publish anything about it or report to anyone. In 1876, at the urging of his professor Kohn, Koch traveled from his bearish corner to Breslau to announce to the world that microbes were indeed the cause of disease. Few people believed it then. For three days, the assembled luminaries of science sat with bated breath and listened to the unknown doctor. It was a victory! Professor Conheim, one of the most talented pathologists in Europe, could not hold back any longer. He jumped out of the hall as if scalded and rushed to the laboratory to check if this unknown doctor was right.
Dr. Koch returned to Wolstein, where, from 1878 to 1880, he achieved new great success, having discovered and studied a special type of little bastards that cause fatal suppuration of wounds in people and animals. In his work on wound infections, Koch put forward three well-known requirements (Koch’s triad), on the basis of which it is possible to establish the connection of a disease with a specific microbe: 1) mandatory identification of the microbe in all cases of this disease; 2) the number and distribution of microbes must explain all the phenomena of the disease; 3) each individual infection must have its own pathogen identified in the form of a well-morphologically characterized microorganism. To fulfill these requirements (later largely revised and modified), Koch created a number of new methods for preparing drugs, staining, etc., which became firmly established in medical practice.
Next, Koch ardently set about searching for tuberculosis bacteria - a disease that claimed, and is still carrying away, many human lives. Koch began with microscopic examination internal organs a thirty-six-year-old worker who died from transient consumption - pulmonary tuberculosis. But no microbes could be seen. That's when it dawned on him to use coloring of preparations. This happened in 1877, which became historic for medicine. After making a smear of the patient's lung tissue on a glass slide, Koch dried it and placed it in a dye solution. Examining a specimen stained under a microscope Blue colour, he clearly saw numerous thin sticks between the lung tissue...
All this time, the Breslau professors did not forget about him, and in 1880, under their patronage, the government’s offer to come to Berlin to take up the post of extraordinary employee at the Ministry of Health fell on him out of the blue. Here he had at his disposal a magnificent laboratory with the richest equipment and two assistants, military doctors Löfler and Gafki. In 1882, showing hellish patience, Koch, using the method of staining and culturing microbes he invented, discovered the causative agent of tuberculosis. On March 24, 1882, at a meeting of the Society of Doctors in Berlin, Koch announced the discovery of the causative agent of tuberculosis (“Koch’s bacillus”). Professor Virchow, the supreme legislator of German medicine, who was present in the hall, was unable to overcome his emotions and left, slamming the door. Probably for the first time he had nothing to say.
A significant discovery was made, which made it possible to begin the search for means to combat tuberculosis. The news that Robert Koch had discovered the tuberculosis microbe spread throughout the world. Overnight, the small, serious, myopic German became the most famous person, to which microbiologists from all countries rushed to study. Koch founded the journal “Zeitschrift für Hygiene und Infectionskrankheiten” in 1886, in which in 1890 he published a method of treating tuberculosis with an extract from the culture of the tuberculosis bacillus - tuberculin. However, the drug turned out to be ineffective and is used only for the diagnosis of tuberculosis.
Robert Koch developed a method for isolating pure cultures of microbes by sowing the mixture on gelatin plates and, with his help, isolated in 1883 Vibrio cholera, shaped like a comma and therefore called “cholera comma.” Closer to the autumn of this year, cholera appeared in Egypt, and there was a fear that, as before, it would begin its journey around the world from there. Therefore, some governments, primarily the French, decided to send research groups to learn how to combat the cholera epidemic using new methods.
A similar decision was made in Germany. The government appointed Koch head of the commission, which arrived in Alexandria on August 24. A Greek hospital was chosen as the place of work. A year earlier, Koch observed a large number of bacteria in part of the intestine of a person who died of cholera, sent to him from India. He, however, did not attach this special significance, since there are always many bacteria in the intestines.
Now, in Egypt, he remembered this discovery. “Perhaps,” he thought, “this microbe is the desired causative agent of cholera.” On September 17, Koch reported to Berlin that in the intestinal contents of twelve cholera patients and ten who died from cholera, a microbe common to this disease had been found and its culture had been grown. But he failed to cause cholera by injecting this crop into animals. By this time in Egypt the epidemic had already begun to subside and further research seemed impossible. Therefore, the commission went to India, to Calcutta, where cholera was still nesting. The sick and dead were again subjected to research, and again the same microbe was found as in Egypt - the same comma-shaped bacilli connected in pairs. Koch and his colleagues had no doubt that this particular microbe was the causative agent of cholera. Having further studied the process of cholera infection and the importance of supply drinking water To end the illness, Koch returned to his homeland, where a triumphant meeting awaited him.
From 1885 to 1891, Koch was a professor at the University of Berlin. Since 1891, he headed the Institute of Infectious Diseases at the Charité Hospital, and since 1901, the Institute of Infectious Diseases in Berlin, later named after Koch.
In 1904, Koch resigned as director of the Institute of Infectious Diseases to focus solely on research. A year later, he was awarded the Nobel Prize at the same time as Adolf Bayer, an outstanding dye researcher, and five years later, on May 27, 1910, Robert Koch died. He passed away as quietly and modestly as he lived.
Koch's students worked hard. Terrible disease, diphtheria, claimed hundreds, thousands of children’s lives every day. He was treated for suffocation by tracheotomy (opening the windpipe). Some fearless doctors risked dying from deadly poison, sacrificed themselves and sucked out the false membranes located in the newly opened windpipe. This is how the doctor-writer M.A. died. Bulgakov. And in 1884, Friedrich Löfler (1852-1915) discovered the causative agent of diphtheria and described the etiology of diphtheria, which made it possible for E. Bering and E. Roux to prepare an antitoxic serum. Georg Hafki (1850-1918), director of the Institute of Infectious Diseases in Berlin since 1904, described the etiology of typhoid fever, first isolated pure cultures of the typhoid bacillus and gave a detailed description of it in 1884. Particularly notable was Richard Pfeiffer, author large number works on various issues of microbiology and immunity. In 1890, he described the causative agent of influenza in smears, and in 1892 he obtained a pure culture of the microbe, which was considered the causative agent of influenza; in 1894, simultaneously with the Russian doctor V.I. Isaev discovered and studied the bacteriolysis of Vibrio cholerae; in 1896 he discovered endotoxins from the causative agent of typhoid fever. In explaining the mechanism of immunity, he tried to contrast the phenomena of bacteriolysis with phagocytosis. Pfeiffer contributed a lot of new things to the study of malaria, plague, cholera and other infectious diseases.
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