Robert Koch
Robert Koch (11 December 1843 - 27 May 1910) was a German doctor.[1] He won the 1905 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, for studying tuberculosis.[2]
Robert Koch | |
|---|---|
| File:Robert Koch (young).jpg Robert Koch | |
| Born | 11 December 1843 |
| Died | 27 May 1910 (aged 66) Baden-Baden, Germany |
| Alma mater | University of Göttingen |
| Known for | Tuberculosis |
| Awards | Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1905) |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Medicine |
| Institutions | Institute for Infectious Diseases, Berlin, Germany |
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The Royal Prussian Institute for Infectious Disease started in 1891, is now called the Robert Koch Institute.[3]
Koch's postulates
Koch developed a system to check whether a microorganism caused a disease. The system was four questions, known as Koch's postulate. Koch's postulates are the following:
- The micro-organism must be common in all organisms with the disease, but absent from healthy organisms.
- The microorganism must be isolated from a diseased organism and grown in pure culture.
- The cultured microorganism should cause disease when introduced into a healthy organism.
- The microorganism must be taken from the inoculated, diseased experimental host and shown to be identical to the original one which caused the disease.
The postulates are still useful. Many variations have been developed.
Robert Koch Media
- Aetiologie der Tuberkulose.jpg
Koch's drawing of tuberculosis bacilli in 1882 (from Die Ätiologie der Tuberkulose)
- Robert Koch (Deutsche Cholera-Expedition in Ägypten 1884).jpg
Photograph of Koch (third from the right) and other members of the German Cholera Commission in Egypt, 1884
- Professors Koch and Pfeiffer working in a laboratory, invest Wellcome L0030175.jpg
Koch (on the microscope) and his colleague Richard Friedrich Johannes Pfeiffer (standing) investigating cholera outbreak in Bombay, India
- Christmas Seal, Robert Koch, 1938 issue.jpg
In 1938 the National Tuberculosis Association paid tribute to Koch and issued a U.S.Christmas Seal. Christmas seals were and continue to be sold as a way of raising funds to fight tuberculosis.
- Statue of Robert Koch in Berlin.jpg
Statue of Koch at Robert-Koch-Platz (Robert Koch square) in Berlin
- Robert Koch's name on the Frieze of LSHTM .jpg
Robert Koch's name on the Frieze of LSHTM
Other websites
References
- ↑ "Biography of Robert Koch". The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2009-01-05.
- ↑ "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1905". Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 2007-07-28.
- ↑ "RKI Homepage". www.rki.de. Retrieved 2009-04-01.[dead link]