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THE HUMAN MICROBIOME
The Trillions of You
BACKGROUND HISTORY
1674 Anton Van Leeuwenheok
Leeuwenheok is the first to observe the microorganisms protozoa- the unicellular eukaryotic organisms and he called them “animalcules”. Following this breakthrough, in 1677, Leeuwenhoek discovered spermatozoa, declaring that eggs are fertilized when entered by sperm.
1798 Edward Jenner
Edward Jenner introduces the first vaccines for small pox. Jenner was a practitioner of smallpox inoculation, and begins to induce immunity by exposure to cowpox, a harmless related disease. Jenner later published, An Inquiry into the Causes and Effects of the Variolae Vaccinae, a disease discovered in some of the western counties of England, particularly Gloucestershire and Known by the Name of Cow Pox.
1822 Louis Pasteur
Ignaz Semmelweis was a obstetrician in Vienna General Hospital who proposed the idea of washing hands when delivering babies. He observed that the high casualties from puerperal fever among delivering women correlated with the help of physicians that came directly from autopsies.
Louis Pasteur discovers that microbes were responsible for alcohol fermentation and that bacteria can be destroyed once reached at certain temperatures and then cooled. Further supporting the Germ Theory, Pasteur conducted numerous experiments between 1860 to 1865, developing a vaccination for anthrax and rabies.
1847 Ignaz Semmelweis
1867 Joseph Lister
Influenced by the work of Pasteur, Joseph Lister uses carbolic acid (phenol) as an antiseptic for surgical wounds. He lowered infection rates, thus verifying that microorganisms cause infections.
1876 Robert Kosh
Robert Kosh proves that infectious agents cause disease. He creates Koch's Postulates, and later developed ways of staining bacteria to improve the bacteria’s visibility under the microscope. Kosh was then able to identify the bacterial causes of tuberculosis (1882) and cholera (1883). He was awarded the 1905 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for his investigations and discoveries in relation to tuberculosis".
1929 Alexander Fleming
1929 Alexander Fleming accidentally discovers the first antibiotic, Penicilin. Fleming had been investigating the properties of staphylococci, when he unintentionally leaves out a culture and discovers it had become contaminated with a fungus. The colonies of staphylococci surrounding the fungus had been destroyed, which he identified the mold from the Penicillium genus (Penicilin). Fleming's discovery revolutionizes his field, kickstarting the era of modern antimicrobials.
1940 Howard Walter Florey and Ernst Boris Chain
Scientists from University of Oxford, Chain and Florey discover that E.Coli deactivates penicillin. This is the first evidence of antibiotic-resistance, and they were able to isolate and purify penicillin. It will eventually be mass-produced with funds from the U.S. to use during World War II.
1953 James Watson and Francis Crick
Cambridge Univeristy scientists, James Watson and Francis Crick, create a 3D model of DNA structure. They claimed they deteremined the double-helix structure of deoxyribonucleic acid, the molecule containing human genes. Due to their scientific breakthrough, Watson and Crick win the Nobel Prize in 1962. However, it has been revealed that their research had been stolen from Rosalind Franklin.
1978 Carl Richard Woese
Carl Richard Woese used ribosomal RNA to discover Archaeobacteria. It has now become the standard approach used to identify and classify all organisms. Woese's studies conclude that Archaea are a large and diverse group of organisms that are widely distributed in nature, and more closely related to humans than bacteria.
1988 Kary Mullis
Kary Mullis develops Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). PCR is now a common and indispensable technique used in research and clinical laboratory uses that include DNA cloning for sequencing, DNA-based phylogeny, functional analysis of genes, identification of genetic fingerprints and hereditary diseases, forensic sciences, DNA paternity testing, and etc.
1971 Hamilton O.Smith, Daniel Nathans, and Werner Arber
Hamilton O.Smith, Daniel Nathans, and Werner Arber discover restriction enzymes, triggering the age of genetic engineering.
As stated on the Noble Peace Prize website,"Arber discovered restriction enzymes. He postulated that these enzymes bind to DNA at specific sites containing recurring structural elements made up of specific basepair sequences."
Smith confirmed Arber's hypothesis by showing that this enzyme cuts DNA in a specific symmetrical sequence.
Nathans "pioneered the application of restriction enzymes to genetics", by developing new methodology involving restriction enzymes to solve various problems.
2008 The Human Microbiome Project is Launched
As defined by Wikipedia, "The Human Microbiome Project (HMP) was a United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) initiative with the goal of identifying and characterizing themicroorganisms which are found in association with both healthy and diseased humans". The project lasted for five years, and "the ultimate goal of this and similar NIH-sponsored microbiome projects was to test how changes in the human microbiome are associated with human health or disease".
2013 Researchers Show Premature Infants Can Develop Sepsis From Gut Microbes
A research team, supported by the Human Microbiome project, have shown for the first time that gut microbes in premature infants can cause sepsis -an extreme reaction to an infection that can deadly if not treated. Stool was collected at birth from a large group of premature infants to illustrate that gut microbes, some present at birth and some that colonized later, can breach the gut to cause bloodstream infections (sepsis). The team was able to prove this by whole genome sequencing to confirm that the identical strains were in both the gut and the stool.
2015 Dr. Michael Snyder Publishes New Study in Nature Biotechnology
Published on December 14, 2015, Dr. Michael Snyder at Stanford University describes a technique that uses a new sequencing technology, known as TruSeq Synthetic Long Read Sequencing Technology. TruSeq Synthetic Long Read Sequencing Technology allows the investigators to more completely assemble whole microbial genomes from this long read sequence data. Snyder and his team were able to consistently recover sequences that allowed them to identify sub-species and strains of bacteria and specific metabolic genes in these strains from these gut microbiome samples.
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