Robert Koch a native of East Prussia is a physician and one of the trailblazers of Microbiology. He was a student of Prof. Gustav Henle who outlined theoretical steps to identify a microorganism as a pathogen. Koch provided the proof for germ theory of disease in 1876. He identified the bacterial cause of anthrax, tuberculosis and cholera, developed pure culture techniques and established a strong school of microbiologists, because of his contribution the last quarter of 19th century is came to be regarded as Golden age of Bacteriology. He was one of the early microbiologists to receive Noble prize. He was awarded Nobel Prize in 1905 in recognition of his contributions to the understanding of tuberculosis.

Robert Koch provided the definitive proof for germ theory of disease while working with anthrax, a dreaded blood disease of cattle and sheep. He injected mice with the blood of diseased sheep and cattle. He then performed meticulous autopsies and noted that the same symptoms appeared regularly. Next he isolated a few rod shaped bacteria from a mouse's blood by plating the bacteria in the sterile aqueous humor from an ox's eye. Koch watched for hours as the bacteria multiplied and finally transformed into resisting spores. He took several spores on a silver needle and injected them into a healthy mouse. The symptoms of anthrax appeared with in hours. Koch autopsied the animals and found their blood swarming with rod shaped bacteria. He reisolated the bacteria in sterile aqueous humor. Koch successfully presented the proof for germ theory of diseases. Koch's procedures were come to known postulates. The Koch postulates are

1. The same microorganism must be identified in all cases of the disease.

2. The microorganism must be isolated and ground in pure culture.

3. The disease must be reproduced in experimental animals inoculated with these pure cultures.

4. The same organism must them be recovered form the experimentally diseased animals.

Robert Koch developed and study the cause of tuberculosis a highly contagious dreaded disease of respiratory tract. In 1882 he isolated Mycobacterium tuberculosis and proved its pathogenicity. He reported the formation of characteristic tubercles by the pathogen and described various types of symptoms caused by it.

Koch isolated a bacterium from cholera patients in Alexandria. He then visited India and also found the similar organism to cause the disease in Calcutta and surroundings. He isolated the organism form various surface waters. In 1884 Berlin conference, he announced the discovery of Vibrio as the causative agent of cholera.

He built a strong school of Microbiology in Germany and trained dedicated scientists who contributed further to the advancement of scientist. Some of the well known associated of Robert Koch who made a mark with their contributions are

1. Richard Julius Petri who invented petridishes for culturing of microorganism

2. Gregor Gaffky who isolated the typhoid bacillus in 1884

3. Friedrich Loeffler who isolated diphtheria bacillus in 1884

4. Emil Von Behring who developed the successful treatment of diphtheria by injecting antitoxin, a blood product obtained from animals injected with diphtheria toxin. He was the awarded Nobel Prize n 1901.

The germ theory of disease proved by Robert Koch , started the field of Medical Microbiology.

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