Robert Koch major scientific discoveries and inventions. Robert Koch and his discoveries

German physician, bacteriologist, one of the founders of modern bacteriology and epidemiology.

In 1905 Robert Koch was awarded Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for the discovery and isolation of the causative agent of tuberculosis, which was isolated by him after 17 years of work in the laboratory.

In 1871, his wife gave her a birthday present Robert Koch microscope, and since then he spent whole days at the device, examining various tissues ...

Later Robert Koch studied the causative agent of anthrax; cholera vibrio; tuberculosis bacillus (at that time in Germany every seventh person died of tuberculosis). The bacteriologist was close to discovering the role of mosquitoes in the transmission of malaria pathogens, but the Englishman Ronald Ross was ahead of him.

« Robert Koch rightfully considered the head of European microbiologists. A simple country doctor, he burned with an unquenchable passion for scientific research. Working in a primitive rural laboratory, Koch developed a number of new methods in the study of microbes. Three of them were truly revolutionary. First, Koch began to stain the bacteria. Before him, all researchers observed microbes as colorless, which, given the level of optics of the last century, led to numerous errors, and sometimes simply did not make it possible to see a microbe if its optical density differed little from the optical density of surrounding tissues. Koch used aniline dyes, which selectively stained only microbial bodies, and appeared before the researchers completely new world microscopic beings. Looking ahead, I want to say that from a simple methodological technique, a whole section of microbiology subsequently developed, concerning the tinctorial properties of microbes (that is, their ability to perceive one or another color depending on the metabolic characteristics of these microorganisms). Thus, by staining bacteria, Koch made it possible to carry out microbiological research at a new scientific level.

Secondly, Koch invented solid nutrient media. It is said that this happened purely by accident. Allegedly, Koch forgot a cut boiled potato in the laboratory, and the next morning he found colonies of microorganisms on it. The scientist realized that the case gave him a new method of research. The fact is that before Koch's work, microbes were grown in broth, that is, in a liquid medium where it is impossible to separate various microorganisms, which means that it is very difficult to obtain a pure culture of the pathogen. To do this, one had to resort to complex methodological tricks, which did not always give an effect. When a mixture of microbes was applied to a solid nutrient medium, each microorganism became the ancestor of an entire colony of microbes exactly at the place where it fell on the nutrient medium. And in this colony was a pure species of microbe. Experimenting with various nutritional products (gelatin, agar-agar - a substance secreted from algae, etc.), Koch developed a number of solid culture media and thereby gave microbiology opportunities that it had not had until then.

The third innovation proposed by Koch was the immersion lens. Before Koch, the maximum magnification of a microscope at which microbes could be viewed was 400-500 times. The use of an objective immersed in oil made it possible to use lenses with a greater curvature, to sharply increase the resolving power of the microscope, and to obtain images at a magnification of 900-1400 times».

Frolov V.A., ahead of time, M., "Soviet Russia", 1980, p. 166-167.

Robert Koch short biography German microbiologist are outlined in this article.

Robert Koch biography briefly

Robert Koch - founder of bacteriology. Robert Koch discoveries in microbiology - discovered anthrax bacillus, vibrio cholerae and tubercle bacillus.

Koch Heinrich Hermann Robert was born in the town of Clausthal-Zellerfeld December 11, 1843. His parents were quite wealthy - his father was a mining engineer, and his mother was the daughter of the chief inspector of the Kingdom of Hanover.

Robert was initially educated at home, where he was taught to read and write. After he enters primary school Clausthal-Zellerfeld. After 3 years, having successfully graduated from school, the young man enters the Clausthal gymnasium and becomes best student in class.

In 1862, Robert entered the University of Göttingen. At the university, the young man focused on physics and botany, became interested in medicine.

After graduating from university in 1866, he worked in German hospitals. For about 5 years he tried to open a private clinic. Then there were attempts to retrain as a military doctor, the decision to become a doctor on a ship in order to travel around the world. But in the end, the future founder of bacteriology got a job as an assistant in a mental hospital in the town of Rakwitz. A year after graduation, Koch married Emma Adelphine Josephine Fratz.

With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian war in 1870, Koch voluntarily goes to the front to work in a field hospital. Koch returned to civilian life in 1871. His wife gave Koch a microscope for his birthday. From that moment on, the scientist spent days and nights with him.

Since 1872, Robert has been working as a county sanitary doctor in Wolstein. Here he saw animals suffering from anthrax. Robert Koch studying the causes of anthrax in sheep, discovered the causative agent of the disease - the bacterium Bacillus anthracis. Having studied it in detail, Koch begins to write scientific works on the subject and become famous.

Then the scientist begins to investigate tuberculosis. Every day he is engaged in examining patients in the Charité hospital, but he fails to detect the causative agent of tuberculosis. Robert decides to use special paints, which helped him identify the pathogen dangerous disease. It was named after the discoverer - "Koch's wand".

Since Koch made a significant contribution to the fight against tuberculosis, and in 1882 the German government instructed Robert to investigate and find the causative agent of cholera. The scientist went to India, where he was able to isolate Vibrio cholerae.

In 1885 he was asked to head the Institute of Hygiene. Koch took up a professorship at the University of Berlin. In parallel with this, he continued to study tuberculosis. He isolated in 1890 such a substance as tuberculin, which helps in the diagnosis of the disease.

For outstanding achievements in the field of medicine and physiology, Robert Koch was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1905.

The German physician and scientist Robert Koch (1843-1910) received the Nobel Prize for his microbiological work against tuberculosis. He also created many of the fundamental methods for microbiological research, some of which are still in use today.

Life's work

At the end of the 19th century, a disease like 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 tremendous progress in the identification and potential treatment of this disease, even receiving the Nobel Prize in Medicine for this work, the scientist did not stop improving research methods that had big influence for all microbiology.

Youth and career choice

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 child prodigy. At the age of five, he already read newspapers, and a little later he was fond of classical literature and was an expert on chess. Interest in science manifested itself 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. and spent the next decade working as a doctor in various hospitals and government offices. scientific communities. In 1876, he published his major research into the disease anthrax, which made him widely known. A few years later he was appointed as an adviser to the Bureau of Public Health, where most of the time he dealt with problems related to tuberculosis.

Determination of the cause of tuberculosis

Modern medicine knows many causes of most diseases. At the time when Koch Robert lived, this knowledge was not so common. One of the first important discoveries of the scientist was the identification of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, which causes this deadly disease. Robert Koch, studying the causes of infection, deliberately infected guinea pigs material from one of three infected animals: monkeys, large cattle and people. In the end, it was found that the bacteria of the infected gilts were identical to those with which they were infected, regardless of the source of infection.

Koch's postulates

What contribution did Robert Koch make to microbiology? One of the most influential methods was the suggestion that the causative agent could be identified from a high degree confidence under four conditions, which later became known as Koch's postulates. Here they are:

1. The microorganism should cause disease in all organisms in which it is present in abundance, therefore, in uninfected organisms they should not be.
2. The suspected microbe must be isolated and grown in pure form.
3. Re-introduction of the microbe should cause disease in previously uninfected organisms.
4. The suspected microbe must be re-isolated from the test organism, grown in a pure form, and be 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) was 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 keen interest in pathology and infectious diseases. As a physician, he worked in many small towns throughout Germany, and during the Franco-Prussian War (1870-1872) he volunteered for the front as a military surgeon.

Later there was an appointment as a precinct medical worker, whose main duty was to study the spread of infectious bacterial diseases. The application of biotechnologies in medicine is still largely dependent on Koch's principles of fixing the causes of infectious diseases. The great scientist died in 1910 in the Black Forest region (Germany), he was 66 years old.

Studying anthrax

At the time that Robert Koch lived, anthrax was widespread among farm animals in the Wollstein area. The scientist had no scientific equipment at that moment, libraries and contacts with other scientists were not available. However, this did not stop him, and he began to study this disease. His laboratory was a 4-room apartment that was his home, and his main equipment was a microscope donated by his wife.

Bacilli Pollender, Rayer and Davaine had previously been identified as the causative agent of anthrax, and Koch set himself the goal of scientifically proving that this bacillus was in fact the cause of the disease. He inoculated mice with homemade wooden chips with anthrax bacilli taken from the spleens of farm animals that had died from the disease. It was found that the death of rodents occurred precisely as a result of infection in the blood of animals. This fact confirmed the conclusions of other scientists who argued that the disease can 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 if 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 bacilli. Robert Koch, studying and photographing them, came to the conclusion that under adverse conditions they produce spores that can withstand the lack of oxygen and other negative factors for bacteria. So they can survive external environment 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 fall, despite the fact that they had no previous contact with them.

Robert Koch: discoveries and achievements

The results of Koch's painstaking work on anthrax were demonstrated by Koch to Ferdinand Kohn, 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 Kohnheim. Everyone was deeply impressed by Koch's work, and after the publication of a work in a botanical journal on the subject in 1876, Koch immediately became famous. He continued, however, to work for Wollstein for another four years, during which time he improved his fixation techniques by staining and photographing bacteria.

Life in Berlin

Later, already in Berlin, he continued to improve bacteriological methods, as well as to invent new ones - the cultivation of pure bacteria in solid media, such as potatoes. The area in which Robert Koch continued to work, microbiology, remained his narrow specialty until the last. He also developed new staining methods for bacteria that made them more visible and easier to identify. 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 tubercle bacillus, as well as a method for growing it in its pure form.

Fight against cholera

Koch was still busy with tuberculosis control work when, in 1883, he was sent to Egypt as leader of a commission from Germany to investigate the outbreak of cholera in that country. Here he discovered the vibrio that causes 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, the scientists formulated rules for fighting the epidemic, which were approved by the great powers in Dresden in 1893 and formed the basis of the control methods that are still used today.

Appointment to high positions

In 1885, Robert Koch, whose biography originates from a small town and a low-income family, was appointed professor of hygiene at the University of Berlin. In 1890 he was appointed Surgeon General, and in 1891 he became an honorary professor in 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, made from mycobacteria. Two versions of the drug were created. The first of which immediately caused considerable controversy. Unfortunately, the healing power of this drug was greatly exaggerated, and the hopes placed on it did not materialize. The new tuberculin (second version) was announced by Koch in 1896, and its therapeutic value was also a disappointment, but nevertheless it led to the discovery of substances of diagnostic value.

And then plague, malaria, trypanosomiasis...

In 1896 Koch went to South Africa to study the origin of rinderpest. Despite the fact that the cause of this disease could not be found out, it was still possible to limit the outbreak. This was followed by work in India and Africa on malaria, Blackwater fever, trypanosomiasis, and rinderpest and horse distemper. The publication of his observations on these diseases was in 1898. Shortly after his return to Germany, travel around the world continued. This time it was Italy, where he confirmed the work of Sir Ronald Ross on malaria and did useful work on etiology. various forms malaria and their control with quinine.

Contribution to microbiology: honorary awards and medals

It is in these last years of his life, Koch came to the conclusion that the bacilli that cause tuberculosis in humans and cattle are not identical. His statement at the International Tuberculosis Medical Congress in London in 1901 caused much controversy, but it is now known that Koch's point of view was correct. His work on typhoid led to the idea that the disease was transmitted much more frequently from person to person than from person to person. drinking water and this led to new control measures.

In December 1904 Koch was sent to East Africa for the study of fever in cattle, where he made important observations not only of this disease, but of the pathogenic species of Babesia and Trypanosoma and tickborne spirochaetosis. Professor Robert Koch has been awarded many prizes and medals, honorary membership in scientific communities and academies in Berlin, Vienna, Naples, New York and others. He was awarded the German Order of the Crown, 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, one of the greatest scientists of his time can rightly be called Robert Heinrich Hermann Koch, who laid the foundation for the study of bacteriology, and also helped in explaining the causes and possible treatments for various bacterial diseases.

He was a fearless explorer, as he was responsible for undertaking unprecedented activities to study such life threatening diseases like anthrax, tuberculosis and many others. This erudite scientist also played an important role in the creation of modern laboratories. Koch Robert was not just a gifted scientist, he was a genius, and the number of awards and medals that he received throughout his life is the best proof of the contribution he made to world medical science.

A bit of history

Koch Robert (1843-1910), German microbiologist, one of the founders of modern bacteriology and epidemiology, foreign corresponding member of the St. Petersburg Academy of Sciences (1884). Proceedings on the identification of pathogens of infectious diseases and the development of methods to combat them. Formulated the criteria for the etiological connection of an infectious disease with a microorganism (Koch's triad). Opened (1882) the causative agent of tuberculosis (Koch's wand). For the first time, he isolated a pure culture of the anthrax pathogen, proved its ability to spore formation. Proposed methods of disinfection. Nobel Prize (1905).

Koch discovered that anthrax, an endemic disease that spreads among cattle and sheep, affects the lungs, causes skin carbuncles and changes in the lymph nodes, is common in the vicinity of Wollstein. Koch knew about the experiments of Louis Pasteur with animals suffering from anthrax, and he also decided to observe these bacteria. With the help of a microscope, he traced the entire life cycle bacteria, saw how millions arise from one stick.

Through a series of careful, methodical experiments, Koch identified the bacterium that became the only reason anthrax. He also proved that the epidemiological features of anthrax, i.e. the relationship between various factors that determine the frequency and geographical distribution infectious disease, due to the development cycle of this bacterium. Koch's research proved for the first time the bacterial origin of the disease.

Koch's discoveries immediately made him widely known, and in 1880, thanks in large part to the efforts of Konheim, he became a government adviser at the Reich Health Office in Berlin. In 1881, Koch published Methods for the Study of Pathogenic Organisms, in which he described a method for growing microbes in solid media. This method had importance for isolation and study of pure bacterial cultures.

Now Koch decides to try his luck and find the causative agent of tuberculosis. The proximity of the Charité, where it was full of tuberculosis patients, made it easier for him: unfortunately, there was as much material as he wanted. Every day he appeared early in the morning at the hospital and received from there a little sputum of a patient with consumption or a few drops of the blood of a sick child. Then he took the small vial to his laboratory, trying to hide it from the eyes of the assistants, and sat down at the microscope.

Days, weeks, months passed ... The scientist's hands turned black from paint, he quickly realized that if there was a chance to see this tiny mysterious killer, then only with the help of coloring substances. But the colors must be too weak. I had to come up with something stronger.

Koch grinds the tubercular tissue, stains it in methylene blue, then in vesuvina with a caustic red-brown dye used for finishing leather, and looks. He forces himself to look away from the lens, leans back in his chair, covers his eyes with his hand. After resting, he looks again. On the preparation, clearly visible are clearly blue, tiny, slightly curved rods of an unusually beautiful shade. Some of them float between the cellular substance, some sit inside the cells. Not believing himself, Koch turns the micrometer screw again, puts on and takes off his glasses again, presses his eye close to the eyepiece, gets up from his chair and looks standing up. The picture does not change. Finally!..

The two hundred and seventy-first drug, Koch writes in his diary. He smiles. And only now it dawns on him what, in fact, happened: he discovered the causative agent of tuberculosis, a universal scarecrow, about which there were so many disputes.

Koch achieved his greatest triumph on March 24, 1882, when he announced that he had succeeded in isolating the bacterium that causes tuberculosis. In Koch's publications on the problems of tuberculosis, principles were first identified, which later became known as Koch's postulates. These principles of obtaining exhaustive evidence ... that a particular microorganism does indeed directly cause certain diseases still remain the theoretical foundations of medical microbiology.

In 1885 Koch became a professor at the University of Berlin and director of the newly established Hygiene Institute. At the same time, he continued to research tuberculosis, focusing on finding ways to treat this 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 tuberculosis patients. 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 caused 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 Koch was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1905.

Koch Heinrich Herman Robert

(1843-1910)

German physician and microbiologist

Heinrich Hermann 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. Father - mining engineer Herman Koch, worked in the management of local mines. Mother, Juliana Matilda Henrietta Koch, nee Bivend, is the daughter of a high-ranking official Heinrich Andreas Bivend, the chief inspector of the Kingdom of Hanover. It was he who saw in the inquisitive grandson the makings of a researcher. 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 elementary school. At this time, he already knew how to read and write.

Having successfully completed school, Robert Koch entered the gymnasium in 1851. Four years later, he was already the first student in the class, and in 1862 he graduated from the gymnasium.

Immediately after graduating from high school, Robert Koch entered the University of Göttingen, where he studied natural Sciences, physics and botany, and then began to study medicine. Many of his university lecturers played a crucial role in shaping Koch's interest in scientific research: the anatomist Jacob Henle, the physiologist Georg Meisener, and the clinician Carl Gasse. Thanks to these scientists, the atmosphere of scholarship reigned at the university, where students took part in debates about microbes and the nature of various diseases. And young Koch could not help being interested in this problem.

After graduating from university in 1866, Robert began to work in various hospitals, and at the same time unsuccessfully tried to organize a private practice in five different cities Germany.

The young doctor cannot yet determine his future path: now he wants to become a military man, then a ship's doctor and commit world travel. But in the end he settled in the city of Rackwitz, where he began medical practice as an assistant in a hospital for the insane.

Three years later, the Franco-Prussian War begins, and Koch's work in the hospital is interrupted. Koch volunteers to become a field hospital doctor, despite severe myopia. In the new service, he gains a lot of practical experience, dealing with the treatment of infectious diseases, in particular cholera and typhoid fever. At the same time, he examines algae under a microscope and large microbes, improving his skills in microphotography.

In 1871 Koch was demobilized. On his twenty-eighth birthday, his wife gave him a microscope, and since then Robert spent whole days with him. He loses all interest in private medical practice and begins to conduct research and experiments, for which he starts a large number of mice.

In 1872, Koch was appointed to the post of county sanitary doctor in Wolstein (now Wolsztyn in Poland). His medical duties made it possible to discover that in the vicinity of Wollstein among cattle, as well as sheep, an endemic disease, anthrax, is widespread. This dangerous disease affected the lungs, caused carbuncles of the skin and changes in the lymph nodes. Knowing about the experiments of Louis Pasteur on animals with anthrax, Koch uses a microscope to study the pathogen that presumably causes anthrax.

His research proved for the first time the bacterial origin of the disease.

In 1876 and 1877, Koch's articles on anthrax were published, with the assistance of the well-known botanist Ferdinand Kohn and pathologist Julius Kongeim. These works bring him great fame. Koch also publishes a description of his laboratory methods, including staining of the bacterial culture and photomicrographs of its structure. The results of Koch's work were presented to scientists from the Konheim laboratory, including Paul Ehrlich.

Later, Koch made attempts to find the causative agent of tuberculosis, a disease at that time widespread and the main cause of death. The proximity of the Charite clinic, filled with tuberculosis patients, makes it easier for him - every day, early in the morning, he comes to the hospital, where he receives material for research: a small amount of sputum or a few drops of blood from patients with consumption.

However, despite the abundance of material, he still does not manage to detect the causative agent of the disease. Soon Koch realizes that the only way to achieve the goal is with the help of dyes. Unfortunately, ordinary dyes are too weak, but after several months of work, he still manages to find the necessary substances.

He managed to find tiny, slightly curved sticks - Koch's sticks.

On March 24, 1882, when he announced that he had succeeded in isolating the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, Koch achieved the greatest triumph of his 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 underlie medical microbiology.

But the study of tuberculosis had to be interrupted - the German government sent a scientist on a scientific expedition to Egypt and India to determine the cause of cholera.

While working in India, Koch announced that he had isolated the microbe that causes the disease, Vibrio cholerae.

In India, he is studying the plague.

In 1885, Koch became a professor at the University of Berlin and director of the newly established Hygiene Institute. At the same time, he continues to research 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 tubercle bacillus during its life - tuberculin, which caused an allergic reaction in tuberculosis patients. However, in practice, tuberculin was not used to treat tuberculosis, since it did not have any special therapeutic properties, but on the contrary, its administration was accompanied by toxic reactions and caused poisoning, which caused 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 big role in the fight against tuberculosis in cows.

In 1906, Robert Koch discovers that the tsetse fly is a carrier of the sleeping sickness pathogen.

He was always attentive to his colleagues, but, of course, there were scientific differences and disputes - in particular, with Louis Pasteur and Ilya Mechnikov.

To strangers, he seemed uncommunicative, suspicious, unsociable person. But friends and colleagues knew him as a kind and sympathetic person. He was keenly interested outside life.

Despite the fact that science occupied the main place in the life of a scientist, he was an avid chess player, as well as a great admirer of Goethe's work.

The portrait of Robert Koch would be incomplete without adding a few touches from his personal life. In 1867, the young scientist married Emma Adolphina Fratz, they had a daughter. This marriage lasted more than a quarter of a century, but did not bring complete happiness to the spouses. It turned out that they never had common interests.

In 1893, Berlin was shocked by a sensation: the venerable Professor Koch divorced his wife and married the young actress Hedwig Freiburg. Finally, Robert pulled out a lucky ticket - the young wife began to live only in the interests of the scientist, accompanying him in all scientific expeditions. In 1910, Koch and his wife went on vacation to Baden-Baden, where on May 27 the heart of an outstanding microbiologist stopped.

Koch was the recipient of many awards, including the Prussian Order of Honor, awarded by the German government in 1906, and honorary doctoral degrees Universities of Heidelberg and Bologna. He was also a foreign member of the French Academy of Sciences, the London Royal scientific society, British Medical Association and many other scientific societies.

1843 Hector is forty years old