Water Microbiology

Dr. Jwan Ibbini

 History And Overview
The discovery of microorganisms

- Roman Philosopher Lucretius (98-55 B.C.)

- Physician Girolamo Fracastoro (1478-1553)

- Disease was caused by invisible living creatures.

 History and Overview
• Antony Van Leeuwenhoek (1632-1723)
Father of Microbiology

- Armature microbiologist who first observed

and described microorganisms

- Designed the first microscope

Leeuwenhoek’s Microscope Replica
A copy of Leeuwenhoek's
microscope. Since his scopes were
made of gold and silver his family sold
them after he died. This copy was
made from descriptions of his
microscopes. The specimens were
placed on the point and adjusted so
they lay in front of the tiny lens. The
specimen was placed so that a beam
of sunlight passed through it and the
viewer looked through the tiny lens at
the illuminated material. Compare this
with your laboratory scope.
 Advances in Microbiology
• 1861 Disproved spontaneous generation (Louis
Pasteur)
• 1862 Supported Germ Theory of Disease (Louis
Pasteur)
• 1867 Practiced antiseptic surgery (Joseph Lister)
• 1876 First proof of Germ Theory of Disease with B.
anthracis discovery (Robert Koch)
• 1881 Growth of Bacteria on solid media (Robert Koch)
• 1882 Outlined Kochs postulates (Robert Koch)
 Advances in Microbiology
• 1882 Developed acid-fast Stain (Paul Ehrlich)
• 1884 Developed Gram Stain (Christian Gram)
• 1885 First Rabies vaccination (Louis Pasteur)
• 1887 Invented Petri Dish (R.J. Petri)
• 1892 Discovered viruses (Dmitri Iosifovich
Ivanovski)
• 1899 Recognized viral dependence on cells
for reproduction (Martinus Beijerinck)
 Advances in Microbiology
• 1900 Proved mosquitoes carried the yellow fever
agent (Walter Reed)
• 1910 Discovered cure for syphilis (Paul Ehrlich)
• 1928 Discovered Penicillin (Alexander Fleming)
• 1977 Developed a method to sequence DNA (W.
Gilbert & F. Sanger)
• 1983 Polymerase Chain Reaction invented (Kary
Mullis)
• 1995 First microbial genomic sequence published
(H. influenzae) (TIGR)
Recognition of microbial role in disease
Contrasting theories about the origins of
microbes led to experiments which greatly
impacted the methodologies of
microbiology
– Spontaneous generation vs. germ theory
– Contributions of Louis Pasteur
– Robert Koch’s postulates
Spontaneous Generation Conflict
“Living organisms could derive from
nonliving or decomposing matter”

Flies comes from meat and Mice origins

from grain…..
Can maggots arise from meat?
The view was finally changed by Italian
physician Francesco Redi (1626-1697)

Redi's experiment proving maggots are not

spontaneously produced in rotten meat.
Lewis Pasteur: End of Spontaneous
Generation

Pasteur's swan-neck flask experiment. Pasteur's SWAN NECK flasks put

the nails in the coffin of spontaneous generation. The experiment was simple,
& easily repeatable by anyone with modest means & the result unequivocal.
However, it is important to note that few scientific experiments are this
straight-forward
 Germ Theory
Also called the pathogenic theory of
medicine, is a theory that proposes that
microorganisms are the cause of many
diseases. Although highly controversial
when first proposed, it is now a
cornerstone of modern medicine and
clinical microbiology, leading to such
important innovations as antibiotics and
hygienic practices
 Germ Theory
• In The Canon of Medicine (1020), Abū Alī ibn Sīnā
(Avicenna) stated that bodily secretion is contaminated
by foul foreign earthly bodies before being infected.[3]
He also discovered the contagious nature of tuberculosis
and other infectious diseases, and introduced quarantine
as a means of limiting the spread of contagious
diseases.[4]
• When the Black Death bubonic plague reached al-
Andalus in the 14th century, Ibn Khatima hypothesized
that infectious diseases are caused by "minute bodies"
which enter the human body and cause disease. Another
14th century Andalusian physician, Ibn al-Khatib, wrote a
treatise called On the Plague
 Robert Koch
• Developed the basic techniques of microbiology
labs we still use today. These include the sterile
culture techniques, pure culture techniques, the
use of petri plates, inoculation needles, solid
medium, the use of agar and gelatin to produce
a solid surface, the Gram stain and other
staining procedures

• Koch discovered the etiological agents of

anthrax, cholera, and tuberculosis
 Koch's postulates
which say that to establish that an organism is
the cause of a disease, it must be:

• found in all cases of the disease examined

• prepared and maintained in a pure culture
• capable of producing the original infection,
even after several generations in culture
• retrievable from an inoculated animal and
cultured again.
 Microbiology Today
• Major twentieth-century contributions
– Antibiotics
– Vaccines
– Technology (electron microscope)
 Microbiology Today
• Technological advances have resulted in the
development of studies in:

– Agricultural microbiology
– Aquatic microbiology
– Industrial microbiology
– Medical microbiology
– Space microbiology
– Environmental microbiology
Have Fun with Microbiology
Have Fun with Micrfobiology