What is Microbiology?
• Micro – (Greek word )
Very small
• Biology - Study of
living things
• Microbes - Very tiny
one-celled organisms,
You need to have a microscope to see
microbes
Branches: Medical microbiology
Industrial microbiology
food microbiology
plant and soil microbiology
• Medical microbiology: Deals with the causative
agents of infectious disease to humans, his
reactions to them and protection against such
diseases
• Scope : Pathogenesis: Essential information for
diagnosis and treatment
• Diagnosis: Correct specimen collection results
are assessed
• Prognosis of the disease
• Epidemiology :Where is the distribution of
disease, source ,spread and prevalence
• Guidance in treatment: Drug sensitivity test
• Prevention: Immunization ,health education
• Classification of Microorganisms
• Bacteria
• Fungi
• Virus
• Prions
• Parasites( protozoa and helminth)
Historical introduction
• Antony Van Leeuwenhoek (1632- 1723 )
• Holland
• Made lenses and constructed microscope
• He observed ,drew and measured a large
number of living organisms –bacteria and
protozoa
• He believed that huge populations from
watery infusions were the progeny of a few
parental organisms
• Edward Jenner (1749 -1823)
• English physician
• Founder of modern vaccination
• Cowpox virus inoculation prevented
smallpox
• Louis Pasteur (1822- 1895) France
• Chemist
• The term ‘microbiology’
• He coined the term ‘vaccine’
• Disproved theory of abiogenesis (swan neck
experiment)
• Worked on fermentation process
• Introduced techniques of sterilization and
developed hotairoven, autoclave and steam
steriliser
• Established different growth needs for different
bacteria
• Development of vaccines for chicken cholera,
anthrax and rabies
• Pasteurization
• Robert Koch (1843 – 1910 )
• Germany
• Discovered Vibrio cholerae,Mycobacterium
tuberculosis,Haemophilus aegypticus
• Introduced staining technique
• Introduced solid culture media for isolation of
organisms
• Hanging drop method for motility of bacteria
• Koch’s postulates : (Anthrax bacillus)
• The bacterium should be constantly associated with the
lesions of the disease
• It should be possible to isolate the bacterium in pure
culture from the lesions
• Inoculation of such pure culture into suitable laboratory
animals should reproduce the lesions of the disease
• It should be possible to reisolate the bacterium in pure
culture from the lesions produced in the experimental
animals
• Specific antibodies to the bacterium should be
demonstrable in the serum of the patient suffering from
the disease
• Exception: Treponema
pallidum ,gonococcus,Mycobacterium leprae
• Father of Bacteriology
Koch’s postulates
lesion
• Elie Metchnikoff (1845 -1916)
• Russian zoologist
• Father of cellular immunity
• Certain specialized cells mediate the
defense against microbial infections .
• Process of phagocytosis: provided the
main defense against infection
• Existence of two types of circulating
phagocytes ‘microphage’ and ‘macrophage’
• Paul Ehrlich (1854- 1915)
• Father of immunochemistry
• Foreign antigens are recognized on sidechains on the
cell.
• Discovered mastcell
• Invented acidfast stain
• Devised a method for manufacture of diphtheria antitoxin
• Pioneered the development of antibiotics (salvarsan)
• He stressed the importance of molecular interaction as
the basis of all biologic function
• Nobel prize winner in 1908
• Name was systematically eliminated from records by Nazi
regimen because of Jewish birth
• Restored to honor by reconstruction of his laboratory at
the 7th international congress of immunology in Berlin in
1989
