Theme: robert koch Prepared by:Mahmuda arai checked by:kosbatyrova.n.b

Theme: robert koch Prepared by:Mahmuda arai checked by:kosbatyrova.n.b group:203 B INDEPENDENT WORK

Koch was born in Clausthal-Zellerfeld in the Harz Mountains, then part of Kingdom of Hanover, as the son of a mining official. He studied medicine under Friedrich Gustav Jakob Henle at the University of Göttingen and graduated in 1866.

He then served in the Franco-Prussian War and later became district medical officer in Wollstein,Prussian Poland. Working with very limited resources, he became one of the founders of bacteriology, the other major figure being Louis Pasteur.

After Casimir Davaine demonstrated the direct transmission of the anthrax bacillus between cows, Koch studied anthrax more closely. He invented methods to purify the bacillus from blood samples and grow pure cultures. He found that, while it could not survive outside a host for long, anthrax built persisting endospores that could last a long time

Koch also devised a method of proving which germ caused an infection. His work was rewarded in 1880 when he was appointed to a post at the Imperial Health Office in Berlin. Here, Koch perfected the technique of growing pure cultures of germs using a mix of potatoes and gelatine. This was a solid enough substance to allow for the germs to be studied better. Koch gathered round him a team of researchers in Berlin in 1881 and began to work on one of the worst diseases of the nineteenth century – tuberculosis (TB

The TB germ was much smaller than the anthrax germ so the search for it was difficult. Using a more specialised version of his dye technique, Koch and his team searched for the TB germ. In May 1882, Koch announced that his team had found the germ. His announcement caused great excitement. It also generated what became known as ‘microbe hunters’ – a new generation of young scientists who were inspired by the work of both Koch and Pasteur. One of those who was inspired by Koch was Paul Ehrlich.

Monument to Robert Koch on his name square in Berlin. Koch on the Moon is named after him. The Robert Koch Prize and Medal were created to honour microbiologists who make groundbreaking discoveries or who contribute to global health in a unique way. The now-defunct Robert Koch Hospital at Koch, Missouri (south of St. Louis, Missouri), was also named in his honor. A hagiographic account of Koch's career can be found in the 1939 Nazi propaganda film Robert Koch, der Bekämpfer des Todes (The fighter against death), directed by Hans Steinhoff and starring Emil Jannings as Koch.

These endospores, embedded in soil, were the cause of unexplained "spontaneous" outbreaks of anthrax. Koch published his findings in 1876,[1] and was rewarded with a job at the Imperial Health Office in Berlin in 1880. In 1881, he urged the sterilization of surgical instruments using heat.

Robert Koch Institute The Robert Koch Institute is one of the central institutions for health protection in Germany. It serves the Federal Ministry of Health as a central scientific institution in the field of biomedicine. The Institute combines risk research with political advice

The classical work area of the Robert Koch Institute is research into infectious diseases. Various teams use molecular biological methods to examine, for instance, the traits and transmission routes of specific bacteria, the HI virus or the BSE pathogen. Furthermore, on the basis of the new Protection against Infections Act - which strengthens the position of the Institute as a central institution in the health system - the incidence of numerous infectious diseases is recorded and evaluated nationwide.