BACTERIA & ARCHAEA

Ferdinand J Cohn published an early classification of bacteria

(genus name Bacillus) for the first time in 1875.

Ilya Ilich Metchnikoff received the Nobel Prize in 1908 with

Ehrlich, for demonstrating phagocytosis - the consumption of
foreign particles and bacteria by the body's own antibodies.

Alice Catherine Evans (1881-1975).  Her work in Wisconsin

Dept. of Agriculture led to the identification of bacteria in fresh
milk.  Her later research, at the National Institutes of Health
(NIH), improved the treatment of epidemic meningitis and she
became first female president of the American Society for
Microbiology in 1928.

Ruth Ella Moore (1903-1994).  The first African American to

gain a PhD in microbiology in 1933 at Ohio State University,
where she researched the tuberculosis bacterium.  Later she
became the first woman to chair a medical school department at
Howard University.

Rebecca Craighill Lancefield (1895-1981).  Developed a

system of classification for Group A streptococcal bacteria -
the Lancefield Grouping - which identifies bacteria including
those causing scarlet fever, sore throat and erysipelas.  She
received the Lasker Award and was elected to the National
Academy of Sciences.

Holger Jannasch   was one of the world's leading experts on life

around mid-ocean hydrothermal vents.  His team discovered
Pyrolobus fumarii, an Archaea,  at  the mid-Atlantic ridge in
1996.  Holger died in 1999.  

IMMUNIZATION & TREATMENT

Louis Pasteur (1822 -1895).  Developed a method of

immunizing against a disease (chicken cholera) using a
weakened (attenuated) strain of the pathogen in 1880.  In 1885
he carried out successful, but unethical, experiments with rabies
on a child.  The term virus (poison) was coined by Pasteur.

Emil von Behring received the Nobel Prize in 1901 for his work
with Shibasaburo Kitasato on the antitoxin serum for diptheria.

Paul Ehrlich in 1912, announced the discovery of an effective

cure for syphilis, the first chemotherapeutic agent for a
bacterial disease.

Margaret Pittman (1901-1995).  Identified the cause of

whooping cough, which led to the development of an improved
vaccine.  She became the first woman to direct a laboratory at
the NIH and was cholera consultant to the World Health
Organization and a leader in the standardization of vaccines.

Gerhard J Domagk used a chemically-produced

antimetabolite to kill streptococci in mice, in 1935.  It was
later used on human patients and he received the 1939 Nobel
Prize for his work.

Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928 whilst

working at St Mary's Hospital in London and published the first
paper on it the following year.  He received the Nobel Prize in
1945, with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, for their work on
Penicillium notatum.

William A Hinton (1883-1959).  Directed the Massachusetts

State Wasserman Laboratory from 1915 and taught for 30 years
at Harvard University Medical School, becoming full professor
there in 1949.  He developed a widely-used test for diagnosing
syphilis.  He was instrumental in establishing the Eisenhower
Scholarship at Harvard University.

Albert Shatz, E Bugie and Selman Waksman discovered

streptomycin in 1944, which was then used to counter
tuberculosis.  Selman Waksman received the Nobel Prize in
1952.  

PLANTS & SOIL

Sergei Winogradsky, in 1890, isolated nitrifying bacteria in
soil and described the organisms which are responsible for
nitrification.

Dmitri Ivanowski published the first evidence of tobacco

mosaic virus, in 1892.

CB Van Niel, by his work on photosynthetic bacteria, in 1931

explained the fixation of carbon-dioxide in plants and suggested
that plants use water as a source of electrons and release
oxygen.

Wendell Stanley, in 1935, demonstrated the tobacco mosaic

virus remains active even after crystallization.  He received the
Nobel Prize in 1946 with Northrop and Sumner.  

VECTORS

Theobald Smith and F L Kilbourne, in 1893 provided evidence

of a zoonotic disease (in this case animal host and arthropod
vector) by establishing that ticks carry Babesia microti.

Walter Reed worked on the viral agent for yellow fever being
transmitted to humans by mosquitoes, which inspired mosquito
eradication and the Yellow Fever Commission in 1900.  

VIRUSES & PRIONS

Frederick Twort, between 1915 and 1917, first discovered a

bacterial virus which was also independently described and
named as a bacteriophage by Felix d'Herrelle.

Francis Peyton Rous was awarded the 1966 Nobel Prize for
work he carried out on chickens in 1911, that gave the first
experimental proof of a virus causing cancer.

Stanley Prusiner found evidence in 1982 that a class of

infections he called "prions" cause scrapie, a fatal
neurodegenerative disease of sheep and was awarded the Nobel
Prize in 1997.
Luc Montaigner and Robert Gallo announced in 1983 the
discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)
believed to cause AIDS.  

CELLS & CULTURES

Joseph Lister published his study of lactic fermentation of

milk in 1878, using a method of isolating a pure culture of the
bacterium responsible.

Martinus Beijerinck developed an enrichment culture to

create the best conditions for growth of required bacterium in
1889.  Whilst working on tobacco mosaic virus in 1899, he
discovered that a filtrate free of bacteria can still transmit the
disease, by some other agent.

Robert Koch published a paper on the bacterium which causes

anthrax in 1876.  In 1881 he developed the use of gelatin on
glass plates as a means for culturing bacteria colonies for
experiments.  He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1905 for his
work on the Tubercule bacillus of tuberculosis.

Albert Jan Kluyver and Hendrick Jean Louis Donker in 1926

proposed a model suitable for aerobic and anaerobic organisms,
for metabolism in cells based on the transfer of hydrogen
atoms.

John Franklin Enders, Thomas H Weller and Frederick

Chapman Robbins were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1954 for
developing a technique to grow the poliovirus in test tube
cultures of human tissue, thus enabling the isolation and study of
viruses in the laboratory.

Peter Mitchell proposed the chemiosmotic theory in 1959,

which explains ATP synthesis, solute accumulations/expulsions,
and cell movement.  He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1978.

George Kohler and Cesar Milstein in 1975, produced specific

antibodies that can survive indefinitely in tissue culture, which
can then be used for diagnostic tests and to study cell function. 
With Jerne, they were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1984.  

GENETICS

Frederick Griffith discovered transformation in bacteria in

1928 and established the foundation of molecular genetics.

Oswald Avery, Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty in 1944

took up Griffith's work and showed that Streptococcus
pneumoniae could transform from an avirulent to a virulent
phenotype by the transfer of DNA.

George Beadle and Edward Tatum published a paper in 1941

on fungus experiments, which demonstrated that specific genes
are expressed through action of designated enzymes the "one
gene - one enzyme" concept.  They were awarded the Nobel
Prize with Lederberg in 1958.

Joshua Lederberg and Edward Tatum published the first

paper on conjugation in bacteria in 1946.  Joshua Lederberg
and Norton Zinder showed that a phage of Salmonella
typhimurium can carry DNA from one bacterium to another and
reported on transduction (transfer of genetic information by
viruses) in 1952.

Alfred Hershey and Martha Chase suggested in 1952 that only

DNA is required for viral replication, after using radioactive
isotopes to track protein and DNA.

Max Delbruck and Salvador Luria, demonstrated statistically

in 1943 that inheritance in bacteria follow Darwin's principles
and that mutant bacteria occurring randomly can still bestow
viral resistance without the virus being present.  They received
the Nobel Prize with Hershey in 1969.

Sydney Brenner, Francois Jacob and Matthew Meselson

used phage-infected bacteria to confirm the existence of
messenger RNA in 1961.

Francis Crick, Maurice Wilkins and James Watson were

awarded the Nobel Prize in 1962 for describing the double-helix
structure of DNA.  This was based on the X-ray crystallography
of DNA done by Rosalind Franklin, who had died of cancer four
years earlier.

Charles Yanofsky and colleagues in 1964, defined the

relationship between the order of mutatable sites in the gene
coding for Escherichia coli.

Francois Jacob and Jacques Monod (together with David

Perrin and Carmen Sanchez) proposed the operon concept
for control of bacteria gene action.  Jacob, Monod and Lwoff were
awarded the Nobel Prize in 1965.

Marsha Nirenberg and J H Matthaei realized in 1961 that the

triplet UUU must code for phenylalanine and thus started to
decipher the genetic code.  Nirenberg, Robert Holley and Har
Gorbind Khorana were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1968.

Stanley Cohen, Annie Chang, Robert Helling and Herbert

Boyer in 1973, showed that recombinant DNA molecules will
reproduce if inserted into bacteria cells, this paved the way for
gene modification and cloning.

Howard Temin and David Baltimore independently discovered

reverse transcriptase in RNA viruses in 1970, establishing a
pathway for genetic information flow from RNA to DNA.  With
Dulbecco they were awarded the Nobel Prize in 1975.

Carl Woese in 1977, used ribosomal RNA analysis to identify

Archaea whose genetic makeup is distinct from, but related to,
both Bacteria and Eucarya.

Frederick Sanger was the first British scientist to be awarded

two Nobel Prizes.  He received his first Nobel Prize in 1958 for
discovering the sequence of amino acids in the hormone
insulin.  Sanger, Walter Gilbert and Berg received the Nobel
Prize in 1980 for their work on the chemical structure of genes.

Kary Mullis used a heat-stable enzyme to establish Polymerase

Chain Reaction (PCR) technology and amplify target DNA in
1986.  He received the Nobel Prize in 1993.

Craig Venter, Hamilton Smith, Claire Fraser and colleagues

determined the first complete genome sequence of a
microorganism - Haemophilus influenzae RD, in 1995.