- Wikipedia

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For other people named Robert Koch, see Robert Koch (disambiguation).

Robert Koch
Koch c. 1900
Born	Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (1843-12-11)11 December 1843 Clausthal, Kingdom of Hanover, German Confederation
Died	27 May 1910(1910-05-27) (aged 66) Baden-Baden, Grand Duchy of Baden, German Empire
Nationality	German
Education	University of G\u00f6ttingen
Known for	Koch's postulates Koch\u2013Pasteur rivalry Bacterial culture method Germ theory of disease Medical microbiology Discovery of anthrax bacillus Discovery of tuberculosis bacillus and tuberculin Discovery of cholera bacillus
Awards	\n ForMemRS (1897) \n Nobel Prize in Medicine (1905) \n Pour le M\u00e9rite (1906) \n
Scientific career
Fields	Microbiology
Institutions	Imperial Health Office, Berlin University of Berlin
Doctoral advisor	Georg Meissner
Other academic advisors	Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle Karl Ewald Hasse Rudolf Virchow
\n

Heinrich Hermann Robert Koch (/k\u0252x/ KOKH;^[1]^[2] German: [\u02c8\u0281o\u02d0b\u025b\u0281t \u02c8k\u0254x] ^\u24d8; 11 December 1843 \u2013 27 May 1910) was a German physician and microbiologist. As the discoverer of the specific causative agents of deadly infectious diseases including tuberculosis, cholera and anthrax, he is regarded as one of the main founders of modern bacteriology. As such he is popularly nicknamed the father of microbiology (with Louis Pasteur^[3]), and as the father of medical bacteriology.^[4]^[5] His discovery of the anthrax bacterium (Bacillus anthracis) in 1876 is considered as the birth of modern bacteriology.^[6] Koch used his discoveries to establish that germs \"could cause a specific disease\"^[7] and directly provided proofs for the germ theory of diseases, therefore creating the scientific basis of public health,^[8] saving millions of lives.^[9] For his life's work Koch is seen as one of the founders of modern medicine.\n

While working as a private physician, Koch developed many innovative techniques in microbiology. He was the first to use the oil immersion lens, condenser, and microphotography in microscopy. His invention of the bacterial culture method using agar and glass plates (later developed as the Petri dish by his assistant Julius Richard Petri) made him the first to grow bacteria in the laboratory. In appreciation of his work, he was appointed to government advisor at the Imperial Health Office in 1880, promoted to a senior executive position (Geheimer Regierungsrat) in 1882, Director of Hygienic Institute and Chair (Professor of hygiene) of the Faculty of Medicine at Berlin University in 1885, and the Royal Prussian Institute for Infectious Diseases (later renamed Robert Koch Institute after his death) in 1891.\n

The methods Koch used in bacteriology led to the establishment of a medical concept known as Koch's postulates, four generalized medical principles to ascertain the relationship of pathogens with specific diseases. The concept is still in use in most situations and influences subsequent epidemiological principles such as the Bradford Hill criteria.^[10] A major controversy followed when Koch discovered tuberculin as a medication for tuberculosis which was proven to be ineffective, but developed for diagnosis of tuberculosis after his death. For his research on tuberculosis, he received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1905.^[11] The day he announced the discovery of the tuberculosis bacterium, 24 March 1882, has been observed by the World Health Organization as \"World Tuberculosis Day\" every year since 1982.\n

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v t e Laureates of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine
1901\u20131925	\n 1901: Emil Behring \n 1902: Ronald Ross \n 1903: Niels Finsen \n 1904: Ivan Pavlov \n 1905: Robert Koch \n 1906: Camillo Golgi / Santiago Ram\u00f3n y Cajal \n 1907: Alphonse Laveran \n 1908: \u00c9lie Metchnikoff / Paul Ehrlich \n 1909: Emil Kocher \n 1910: Albrecht Kossel \n 1911: Allvar Gullstrand \n 1912: Alexis Carrel \n 1913: Charles Richet \n 1914: R\u00f3bert B\u00e1r\u00e1ny \n 1915 \n 1916 \n 1917 \n 1918 \n 1919: Jules Bordet \n 1920: August Krogh \n 1921 \n 1922: Archibald Hill / Otto Meyerhof \n 1923: Frederick Banting / John Macleod \n 1924: Willem Einthoven \n 1925 \n	$\"\"$
1926\u20131950	\n 1926: Johannes Fibiger \n 1927: Julius Wagner-Jauregg \n 1928: Charles Nicolle \n 1929: Christiaan Eijkman / Frederick Gowland Hopkins \n 1930: Karl Landsteiner \n 1931: Otto Warburg \n 1932: Charles Scott Sherrington / Edgar Adrian \n 1933: Thomas Morgan \n 1934: George Whipple / George Minot / William Murphy \n 1935: Hans Spemann \n 1936: Henry Dale / Otto Loewi \n 1937: Albert Szent-Gy\u00f6rgyi \n 1938: Corneille Heymans \n 1939: Gerhard Domagk \n 1940 \n 1941 \n 1942 \n 1943: Henrik Dam / Edward Doisy \n 1944: Joseph Erlanger / Herbert Gasser \n 1945: Alexander Fleming / Ernst Chain / Howard Florey \n 1946: Hermann Muller \n 1947: Carl Cori / Gerty Cori / Bernardo Houssay \n 1948: Paul M\u00fcller \n 1949: Walter Hess / Ant\u00f3nio Egas Moniz \n 1950: Edward Kendall / Tadeusz Reichstein / Philip Hench \n
1951\u20131975	\n 1951: Max Theiler \n 1952: Selman Waksman \n 1953: Hans Krebs / Fritz Lipmann \n 1954: John Enders / Thomas Weller / Frederick Robbins \n 1955: Hugo Theorell \n 1956: Andr\u00e9 Cournand / Werner Forssmann / Dickinson W. Richards \n 1957: Daniel Bovet \n 1958: George Beadle / Edward Tatum / Joshua Lederberg \n 1959: Severo Ochoa / Arthur Kornberg \n 1960: Frank Burnet / Peter Medawar \n 1961: Georg von B\u00e9k\u00e9sy \n 1962: Francis Crick / James Watson / Maurice Wilkins \n 1963: John Eccles / Alan Hodgkin / Andrew Huxley \n 1964: Konrad Bloch / Feodor Lynen \n 1965: Fran\u00e7ois Jacob / Andr\u00e9 Lwoff / Jacques Monod \n 1966: Francis Rous / Charles B. Huggins \n 1967: Ragnar Granit / Haldan Hartline / George Wald \n 1968: Robert W. Holley / Har Khorana / Marshall Nirenberg \n 1969: Max Delbr\u00fcck / Alfred Hershey / Salvador Luria \n 1970: Bernard Katz / Ulf von Euler / Julius Axelrod \n 1971: Earl Sutherland Jr. \n 1972: Gerald Edelman / Rodney Porter \n 1973: Karl von Frisch / Konrad Lorenz / Nikolaas Tinbergen \n 1974: Albert Claude / Christian de Duve / George Palade \n 1975: David Baltimore / Renato Dulbecco / Howard Temin \n
1976\u20132000	\n 1976: Baruch Blumberg / Daniel Gajdusek \n 1977: Roger Guillemin / Andrew Schally / Rosalyn Yalow \n 1978: Werner Arber / Daniel Nathans / Hamilton O. Smith \n 1979: Allan Cormack / Godfrey Hounsfield \n 1980: Baruj Benacerraf / Jean Dausset / George Snell \n 1981: Roger Sperry / David H. Hubel / Torsten Wiesel \n 1982: Sune Bergstr\u00f6m / Bengt I. Samuelsson / John Vane \n 1983: Barbara McClintock \n 1984: Niels Jerne / Georges K\u00f6hler / C\u00e9sar Milstein \n 1985: Michael Brown / Joseph L. Goldstein \n 1986: Stanley Cohen / Rita Levi-Montalcini \n 1987: Susumu Tonegawa \n 1988: James W. Black / Gertrude B. Elion / George H. Hitchings \n 1989: J. Michael Bishop / Harold E. Varmus \n 1990: Joseph Murray / E. Donnall Thomas \n 1991: Erwin Neher / Bert Sakmann \n 1992: Edmond Fischer / Edwin G. Krebs \n 1993: Richard J. Roberts / Phillip Sharp \n 1994: Alfred G. Gilman / Martin Rodbell \n 1995: Edward B. Lewis / Christiane N\u00fcsslein-Volhard / Eric F. Wieschaus \n 1996: Peter C. Doherty / Rolf M. Zinkernagel \n 1997: Stanley B. Prusiner \n 1998: Robert F. Furchgott / Louis Ignarro / Ferid Murad \n 1999: G\u00fcnter Blobel \n 2000: Arvid Carlsson / Paul Greengard / Eric Kandel \n
2001\u2013present	\n 2001: Leland H. Hartwell / Tim Hunt / Paul Nurse \n 2002: Sydney Brenner / H. Robert Horvitz / John E. Sulston \n 2003: Paul Lauterbur / Peter Mansfield \n 2004: Richard Axel / Linda B. Buck \n 2005: Barry Marshall / Robin Warren \n 2006: Andrew Fire / Craig Mello \n 2007: Mario Capecchi / Martin Evans / Oliver Smithies \n 2008: Harald zur Hausen / Luc Montagnier / Fran\u00e7oise Barr\u00e9-Sinoussi \n 2009: Elizabeth Blackburn / Carol W. Greider / Jack W. Szostak \n 2010: Robert G. Edwards \n 2011: Bruce Beutler / Jules A. Hoffmann / Ralph M. Steinman (posthumously) \n 2012: John Gurdon / Shinya Yamanaka \n 2013: James Rothman / Randy Schekman / Thomas C. S\u00fcdhof \n 2014: John O'Keefe / May-Britt Moser / Edvard Moser \n 2015: William C. Campbell / Satoshi \u014cmura / Tu Youyou \n 2016: Yoshinori Ohsumi \n 2017: Jeffrey C. Hall / Michael Rosbash / Michael W. Young \n 2018: James P. Allison / Tasuku Honjo \n 2019: Gregg L. Semenza / Peter J. Ratcliffe / William Kaelin Jr. \n 2020: Harvey J. Alter / Michael Houghton / Charles M. Rice \n 2021: David Julius / Ardem Patapoutian \n 2022: Svante P\u00e4\u00e4bo \n 2023: Katalin Karik\u00f3 / Drew Weissman \n 2024: Victor Ambros / Gary Ruvkun \n

v t e 1905 Nobel Prize laureates
Chemistry	\n Adolf von Baeyer (Germany) \n
Literature (1905)	\n Henryk Sienkiewicz (Poland) \n
Peace	\n Bertha von Suttner (Austria-Hungary) \n
Physics	\n Philipp Lenard (Germany) \n
Physiology or Medicine	\n Robert Koch (Germany) \n
\n Nobel Prize recipients \n 1901 \n 1902 \n 1903 \n 1904 \n 1905 \n 1906 \n 1907 \n 1908 \n 1909 \n 1910 \n

v t e History of infectious diseases
Individual diseases	\n Cholera \n HIV/AIDS \n Leprosy \n Malaria \n Plague \n Polio \n Smallpox \n Syphilis \n Tuberculosis \n Typhoid fever \n Yellow fever \n
People	\n Alexander Fleming \n Maurice Hilleman \n Edward Jenner \n Robert Koch \n Louis Pasteur \n Jonas Salk \n Ignaz Semmelweis \n John Snow \n Israel Jacob Kligler \n
Major epidemics	\n Black Death (1346\u20131353) \n Spanish flu (1918\u20131920) \n HIV/AIDS pandemic (1981\u2013present) \n COVID-19 pandemic (2019\u2013present\") \n
Other	\n Discovery of disease-causing pathogens \n Smallpox eradication \n Social history of viruses \n

v t e Tuberculosis
Symptoms, signs and associated conditions	\n Pulmonary tuberculosis\n Ghon focus / Ghon's complex \n Extrapulmonary tuberculosis\n Caseous necrosis \n Pott disease \n Canga's bead symptom \n Prosector's wart \n Lupus vulgaris \n Tuberculous lymphadenitis \n Tuberculous meningitis \n Miliary tuberculosis \n Latent tuberculosis \n Paronychia \n Giant multinucleated cell \n Post-tuberculosis lung disease \n	$\"Mycobacterium$
Mycobacterium species	\n Mycobacterium africanum \n Mycobacterium bovis \n Mycobacterium caprae \n Mycobacterium tuberculosis \n
Tuberculosis diagnosis	\n Ziehl\u2013Neelsen stain \n Auramine phenol stain \n Culture on L\u00f6wenstein\u2013Jensen medium and/or MGIT \n Chest photofluorography \n GeneXpert MTB/RIF \n Interferon gamma release assay\n QuantiFERON \n T-SPOT.TB \n Microscopic Observation Drug Susceptibility assay \n Tuberculin\n Heaf test \n Mantoux test \n Tine test \n
Management (ATC code J04)	\n Isoniazid \n 4-Aminosalicylic acid \n Ethambutol \n Capreomycin \n Cycloserine \n Rifampicin \n Thioacetazone \n Streptomycin \n Bedaquiline \n Pyrazinamide \n Rifater \n
Vaccines	\n BCG vaccine \n Experimental\n M72/AS01E \n MVA85A \n RBCG30 \n
Resistance	\n Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis \n Extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis \n Totally drug-resistant tuberculosis \n
History of tuberculosis	\n Manuel de Abreu \n Hermann Brehmer \n Albert Calmette \n Christopher Dye \n Marcos Espinal \n Friedrich Franz Friedmann \n Max Gerson \n Philip D'Arcy Hart \n F. R. G. Heaf \n George M. Heath \n Robert Koch \n Charles Mantoux \n Richard Morton \n Mario Raviglione \n Carl R\u00fcedi \n Lucius R\u00fcedi \n Madonna Swan \n Edward Livingston Trudeau \n
Organizations	\n Adirondack Cottage Sanitarium \n Campaign for Access to Essential Medicines \n Center for Global Infectious Disease Research \n Cure Cottages of Saranac Lake \n European and Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership \n Glen Lake Children's Camp \n Glen Lake Sanatorium \n Glenn Dale Hospital \n The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria \n Global Plan to Stop Tuberculosis \n International Congress on Tuberculosis \n International Union Against Tuberculosis and Lung Disease \n Millennium Foundation \n Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Structural Genomics Consortium \n National Jewish Health \n Phipps Institute for the Study, Treatment and Prevention of Tuberculosis \n Stop TB Partnership \n TB Alliance \n Unitaid \n
Other	\n Tuberculosis elimination \n 2007 tuberculosis scare \n Baumgarten-Tangl law \n CFP-10 \n ESAT-6 \n Iowa Cow War \n List of tuberculosis cases \n N95 respirator \n Plombage \n Preventorium \n Sanatorium \n Sunshine Way \n Tuberculosis classification \n Tuberculosis in China \n Tuberculosis in human culture \n Tuberculosis radiology \n Tygerberg score \n World Tuberculosis Day \n

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Early life and education

Anthrax

Career

Scientific contributions

Techniques in bacteria study

Development of Petri dish

Tuberculosis

Cholera

Tuberculosis treatment and tuberculin

Acquired immunity

Koch's postulates

Selected publications

Personal life

Awards and honours

Controversies

Louis Pasteur

Tuberculin

Human and cattle tuberculosis

The 1902 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine

See also

References

Further reading

External links

Robert Koch

Talks

15 January, 1891