ROBERT KOCH

ROBERT KOCH

·       Robert Koch was a German Doctor who later became the Professor of Hygiene and Director of Institute of Infective Diseases at Berlin.

·      He is the “Father of Medical Microbiology” and “Father of Bacteriology”. He is also one of the Founder of Bacteriology.

·  Robert Koch discovered the Anthrax diseasecycle (Bacillus anthracis) and bacteria responsible for Tuberculosis (Mycobacterium tuberculosis), Cholera (Vibrio cholerae) and Diphtheria (Corynebacterium diphtheriae). For his discoveries in regard to Tuberculosis, he received the Nobel prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1905.

·     Robert Koch learned that Dyes helped to make bacteria visible and identifiable under the Microscope, and published the first Photographs of bacteria.

·      Robert Koch described the method of preparing thin layers of bacteria on glass slides and fixing them by gentle heat (Smear preparation). 

·    Robert Koch invented Cavity glass slide and introduced Hanging drop method to study the bacterial motility in 1878.

·       Robert Koch was the first Physician to use an Oil immersion lens and a Condenser.

·       Robert Koch’s assistant, Julius Richard Petri designed a shallow dish for culturing bacteria (Petriplate), and another of his assistants discovered that Agar from Seaweed made an effective medium (suggested by Fannie Hesse who was the wife of Koch’s assistant Walther Hesse).

·       The “Germ theory of Diseases” was verified by Robert Koch. Robert Koch established the relationship between Anthrax and Bacillus anthracis, and proposed his Koch Postulates

(i)    The microbe must be present in each disease case, but absent from healthy individuals.

(ii)  The suspected microbe must be isolated from the disease case and grown in pure culture.

(iii)The same disease must result when a healthy host is inoculated with the isolated microbe.

(iv) The same microbe must be isolated again in pure culture from the diseased host.