Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch - Case Study Example

Born in 1822 in France, Pasteur’s work in the field of microbiology is immensely recognized and encountered in our daily lives. Among his popular works include the invention of Pasteurization process, the discovery of the germ-disease relationship, as well as the invention of the rabies vaccine. Contributions He discovered the role of pasteurization while at the university where he was a chemistry professor. He was approached to establish the course of souring in wine. In the process Pasteur established that the reason behind the souring of wine can be related to that of souring in milk, which is as a result of bacterium contamination.

He established that the bacterium produced an acid that was responsible for the souring of the wine. He went further to establish that, heating the wine gently to temperatures around 60o C for at least 30 minutes led to the destruction of the bacterium, which subsequently prevented further souring of wine (Krasner, 1995). He described the process of souring as fermentation and the process of heating the wine to temperature levels enough to kill the bacterium as pasteurization. The process is nowadays widely applicable in the many food production industries and even locally in many households to kill disease causing bacteria as well as improve shelf life of various food products as well as in hospitals to prevent germ re-infection (Engelkirk & Engelkirk, 2010).

He is also recognized for his role in the discovery of attenuation. He discovered that rabies future rabies infection could also be prevented through vaccine which entailed injecting cultured weakened rabies bacteria into a rabbit and realized that after injection of the rabbits with virulent inoculant, the rabbits did not show any sign of infection. This vaccine has been enhanced and widely used in the prevention of rabies in human and dogs. In the germ theory, he discovered that specific microbes cause specific infectious disease.

Robert Koch Robert Koch, born in 1843 in Germany, is yet another infamous personality worth to recognize in the field of microbiology and human health. He is purported to have made a tremendous contribution in these fields. In particular according to Krasner (1995), Koch further enhanced the previous job of Pasteur especially the germ theory. He provided prove that the specific microbes were the cause of certain disease, for instance he showed that anthrax bacillus was the main cause of anthrax.

This was through the conduction of a series of steps that became popularly known as the Koch’s Postulates. The postulates provided a guideline that would allow for the isolation and subsequent analysis of the specific microbes that cause specific diseases. He also discovered that the Anthrax Bacillus just like many spore-producing microbes, were capable of resisting adverse conditions, which was fundamental in understanding the life cycles of the disease as well as the correct mechanism of prevention of the disease.

Furthermore, Koch is also recognized for inventing fixation, staining techniques as well photographing of bacteria which paved way for further studies on disease causing bacteria. Engelkirk and Engelkirk (2010) further contends that Koch was also the key personnel behind the discovery of the bacterium that causes tuberculosis, the M. tuberculosis, and Vibrio cholera that causes cholera which are some of the most common and dangerous disease. This enhanced