Biological puzzles solved by using Streptococcus pneumoniae: a historical review of the pneumococcal studies that have impacted medicine and shaped molecular bacteriology.

The major human pathogen Streptococcus pneumoniae has been the subject of intensive clinical and basic scientific study for over 140 years. In multiple instances, these efforts have resulted in major breakthroughs in our understanding of basic biological principles as well as fundamental tenets of bacterial pathogenesis, immunology, vaccinology, and genetics. Discoveries made with S. pneumoniae have led to multiple major public health victories that have saved the lives of millions. Studies on S. pneumoniae continue today, where this bacterium is being used to dissect the impact of the host on disease processes, as a powerful cell biology model, and to better understand the consequence of human actions on commensal bacteria at the population level. Herein we review the major findings, i.e., puzzle pieces, made with S. pneumoniae and how, over the years, they have come together to shape our understanding of this bacterium's biology and the practice of medicine and modern molecular biology.

Un padre olvidado de la Microbiología: Louis Joblot / A forgotten father of Microbiology

El microscopista francés Louis Joblot (1645-1723), contemporáneo de Antoine van Leeuwenhoek y Robert Hooke, puede ser considerado uno de los padres de la protistología/microbiología. Su obra titulada "Descripciones y usos de varios microscopios nuevos" de 1718 contiene varias extraordinarias imágenes de protozoos en movimiento y en división binaria. Lamentablemente, algunas imágenes de dicha obra contenían figuras fantásticas, por lo que su legado fue rápidamente obscurecido. Sus experimentos sobre el fenómeno de generación espontánea marcaron un hito en el desarrollo de este debate y se adelantaron en casi siglo y medio a los experimentos de Louis Pasteur.

The French microscopist Louis Joblot (1645-1723), a contemporary of Antoine van Leeuwenhoek and Robert Hooke, he can be considered one of the fathers of protistology/microbiology. His work entitled "Descriptions and uses of various new microscopes" of 1718 contains several extraordinary images of protozoa in motion and in binary division. Unfortunately, some images of this work contained fantastic figures, so his legacy was quickly obscured. His experiments on the phenomenon of spontaneous generation marked a milestone in the development of this debate and anticipated Louis Pasteur's experiments by almost a century and a half.

El Instituto de Higiene y la enseñanza de la Bacteriología en Chile / The Institute of Hygiene and the teaching of Microbiology in Chile

El Instituto de Higiene, fundado por el gobierno de Chile en 1892, aparte de sus funciones en el ámbito de la salud pública, participó activamente en la docencia de pregrado de Bacteriología de la Escuela de Medicina de la Universidad de Chile. La cátedra de Bacteriología fundada en 1895 fue trasladada en 1902 a la sección de seroterapia de dicho instituto (uno de los cinco edificios que formaban el instituto). La cátedra permaneció en ese lugar por tres décadas, siendo trasladada en 1930 por el Dr. Hugo Vaccaro de vuelta a la Escuela de Medicina. Por otra parte, la cátedra extraordinaria de Bacteriología siguió ligada a dicho instituto y a su inmediato sucesor el Instituto Bacteriológico de Chile. Sin embargo, luego del incendio de la Escuela de Medicina en 1948, la cátedra ordinaria tuvo que retornar a sus antiguos edificios en la ribera del Mapocho y paralelamente la cátedra extraordinaria se trasladó a una nueva ubicación en Ñuñoa.

The Institute of Hygiene, founded by the Chilean government in 1892, apart from its functions in the field of public health, actively participated in the undergraduate teaching of Bacteriology at the School of Medicine of the University of Chile. The chair of Bacteriology founded in 1895 was transferred in 1902 to the serotherapy section of the mentioned institute (one of the five buildings that made up the institute). The chair remained in that place for three decades, being transferred by Dr. Hugo Vaccaro back to the School of Medicine in 1930. On the other hand, the Extraordinary Chair of Bacteriology continued to be linked to the said institute and to its immediate successor, the Bacteriological Institute of Chile. However, after the fire at the School of Medicine in 1948, the ordinary chair had to return to its old buildings on the banks of the Mapocho and at the same time the extraordinary chair moved to a new location in Ñuñoa.

Los inicios de la bacteriología en Buenos Aires en el siglo XIX: transformaciones institucionales y políticas sanitarias / [The beginnings of bacteriology in Buenos Aires in the 19th century: institutional transformations and health policies]

En este trabajo se analiza el comienzo de la incorporación de la bacteriología a la política sanitaria en Buenos Aires durante las décadas de 1880 y 1890, y las transformaciones que este proceso implicó en el plano institucional y de la intervención estatal. En particular, indagamos en estos cambios a través de la creación y los primeros años de funcionamiento de dos espacios orientados a la producción y enseñanza de conocimientos bacteriológicos: el Laboratorio Bacte-riológico de la Asistencia Pública y la Sección Bacteriológica de la Oficina Sanitaria Argentina. A través del estudio de las trayectorias de los creadores y primeros integrantes de ambos espacios, un grupo de la élite médica agrupada en el Círculo Médico Argentino, y de los conocimientos que circularon al interior de ambas instituciones, reconstruimos el inicio del desarrollo de la bacteriología en Argentina y el modo en que se incorporó a las agendas gubernamentales. (AU)

[Robert Koch as a young rural doctor in Brandenburg and the Poznan region (1868-1880)]. / Robert Koch als junger Landarzt in Brandenburg und Posen (1868­1880).

The bacteriologist and Nobel Prize winner Robert Koch (1843-1910) is one of the most important and best-known scientists in German history. Many people associate him not only with the institute named after him (today the Robert Koch Institute is Germany's National Public Health Institute), but above all, with his work as a "microbe hunter". Koch achieved world fame with the discovery of the tuberculosis pathogen in 1882. To research and combat infectious diseases, he undertook expeditions to foreign countries. This article deals with a lesser-known episode in Robert Koch's life - his years as a young rural doctor in the then Prussian provinces of Brandenburg and Posen. After a chronological description of Robert Koch's "wandering years", the focus is directed to today's culture of remembrance. The question is discussed in which way, if at all, the memory of Robert Koch is maintained at the authentic places.

Los inicios de la fagoterapia en Chile: los doctores Mercedes Perez Matus y Hugo Vaccaro Kosovich / The beginnings of phage therapy in Chile: the doctors Mercedes Perez Matus and Hugo Vaccaro Kosovich

Mercedes Pérez Matus y Hugo Vaccaro Kosovich fueron destacados médicos y microbiólogos de la cátedra ordinaria de Bacteriología de la Facultad de Medicina de la Universidad de Chile. En 1931, ambos médicos fueron contratados por la Facultad de Medicina para reorganizar la convulsionada Cátedra de Bacteriología luego de la crisis política de 1931. En el mismo período el destacado investigador del instituto Pasteur Eugéne Wollman vino a Chile a dirigir el Instituto Sanitas (1929-1931), incorporando en nuestro país el conocimiento sobre los bacteriófagos y las técnicas para su aislamiento. La prolongada labor docente y de investigación de Vaccaro y Pérez se extendió por casi 40 años (1931-1970). Publicaron numerosos artículos científicos, siendo uno de sus temas preferidos, en los primeros años, el estudio de los bacteriófagos que aprendieron junto a Wollman. En la década de los 40, bajo el liderazgo de los Dres. Vaccaro y Pérez, se inició la fagoterapia en Chile.

Mercedes Perez Matus and Hugo Vaccaro Kosovich were distinguished doctors and microbiologists from the ordinary chair of Bacteriology at the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Chile. In 1931, both doctors were hired by the F aculty of Medicine to reorganize the convulsed Chair of Bacteriology after the political crisis of 1931. In the same period, the prominent Pasteur Institute researcher Eugene Wollman came to Chile to direct the Sanitas Institute (1929-1931), incorporating in our country the knowledge about bacteriophages and the techniques for their isolation. The long teaching and research work of Vaccaro and Pérez spanned almost 40 years (1931-1970). They published numerous scientific articles, being one of their favorite topics, in the early years, the study of bacteriophages that they learned together with Wollman. In the 1940s, under the leadership of Drs. Vaccaro and Pérez, phage therapy began in Chile.

Producción de vacunas en el antiguo Instituto Bacteriológico de Chile / Vaccine production at the ancient Bacteriological Institute of Chile

Se relata el nacimiento, auge y decadencia, de la producción de vacunas en el antiguo Instituto Bacteriológico de Chile, desde su fundación en 1929 hasta su fin en 1980, por boca de quien fuera por diecisiete años primero encargado de la fabricación de vacunas bacterianas y luego director de la institución. Las vicisitudes de la vacuna BCG, la introducción del toxoide tetánico, el fin de la vacuna antivariólica y el triunfo de vacuna antirrábica de Fuenzalida y Palacios, se narran a menudo con comentarios de quienes participaron en estos hechos.

The birth, rise and decline, of vaccine production at the Bacteriological Institute of Chile is recounted by mouth of who was for seventeen years first in charge of manufacturing and then director of the institution. The vicissitudes of the BCG vaccine, the introduction of tetanus toxoid, the end of smallpox vaccine, and the triumph of the rabies vaccine are often related with comments from those who participated in the events.

Erin Goley.

Interview with Erin Goley, who studies the mechanisms governing bacterial morphogenesis and the regulation of bacterial growth in changing environments at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.

[Jules Bordet, a man of conviction. Centenary of his Nobel Prize]. / Jules Bordet, un homme de conviction - Centenaire de l'attribution de son prix Nobel.

Jules Bordet came to the Institut Pasteur soon after his MD graduation at the Université libre de Bruxelles, thanks to a grant from the Belgian government. He joined there the laboratory of Elie Metchnikoff, the father of phagocytes and cellular immunity. Amazingly, he will decipher there some of the key mechanisms of humoral immunity initially discovered by the German school against which his mentor was fighting. He described the mechanisms that govern bacteriolysis and hemolysis, following the action of immune sera. Even if he favored the term alexin coined by Hans Buchner, he is indeed one of the founding fathers of the complement system (term coined by Paul Ehrlich). It is for these works that he was awarded in October 1920 the 1919 Nobel Prize. Back in Belgium, he became the director of Institut Pasteur du Brabant and made another landmark discovery, namely the identification of the bacillus of whooping cough, now named Bordetella pertussis.

TITLE: Jules Bordet, un homme de conviction - Centenaire de l'attribution de son prix Nobel. ABSTRACT: Docteur en médecine, bénéficiant d'une bourse du gouvernement belge, Jules Bordet vint se former au sein du laboratoire du père de l'immunité cellulaire, Elie Metchnikoff, à l'Institut Pasteur. Paradoxalement, il va y déchiffrer certains des mécanismes clés de l'immunité humorale, initialement découverte par l'école allemande. Il y décrit notamment les mécanismes qui aboutissent à la bactériolyse et l'hémolyse par l'action d'immunsérums. Même s'il favorisa le terme d'alexine, créé par Hans Buchner, c'est bien le système du complément (terme inventé par Paul Ehrlich) dont il est un des pères fondateurs. C'est pour ces travaux qu'il se verra attribué en octobre 1920 le prix Nobel de physiologie ou médecine millésimé 1919. Il identifia aussi le bacille de la coqueluche, qui porte son nom Bordetella pertussis.

After Pettenkofer. Munich's Institute of Hygiene and the long shadow of National Socialism, 1894-1974.

The year 2019 marked the 140th anniversary of the inauguration of the first Institute of Hygiene, which was established for Max von Pettenkofer at the university of Munich. After Pettenkofer, his successors tried to advance the science of hygiene each in their own specific way, highlighting different aspects and trying to relate them to Pettenkofer's legacy: Max von Gruber promoted an understanding of hygiene which was more and more tied to constitutional and racial factors, Karl Kisskalt tried to revise a perceived bacteriological paradigm, and Hermann Eyer focused on preventive public health measures. All of those influences had a more or less explicit and distinct connection to the general development of German medicine in the first half of the 20th century and its culmination in National Socialist crimes. The history of Munich's Institute of Hygiene after Pettenkofer illustrates the differing scientific and ideological paths this development pursued by the examples of its three long-term protagonists and their relationship to National Socialism.

Jules Bordet: immunologist, bacteriologist and Nobel Prize winner.

This year marks the 150th anniversary of the birth of Jules Jean Baptiste Vincent Bordet, to give him his full name, the Belgian immunologist and bacteriologist.

Tuberculosis, Cholera, Anthrax: Dreadful Culprits.

Dreadful culprits from the minuscule world, indeed, but … what about poverty, war, and terrorism in the macroscopic nowadays world?

Letters from Libman: Dispatches from an American Abroad.

American physician Emanuel Libman (1872-1946) was a generalist with Sherlockian diagnostic skills ("secret-divining eyes" according to Einstein) whose achievements were recognized by the scientific community and the public. Personal aspects of Libman were revealed in an oral history conducted with psychiatrist George L. Engel, a nephew who was raised in his house, and show Libman to be an intensely private person, contrasting with the image of him as a mentor and teacher. Yet Libman as a young physician and investigator remains absent in these opposing biographical reflections. His papers housed at the National Library of Medicine contain a series of letters sent home from his year of postgraduate study in Europe in 1897. These letters, which have not been previously described in the medical literature, create a window into the experiences of a young American physician abroad. Libman's letters create a framework for understanding a typical European course of study for American physicians while tracing his career and personal development. Specifically, his correspondence highlights foundational experiences in bacteriology and pathology and explores his encounters with European anti-Semitism. The letters reveal a young doctor interested in history and sightseeing, awed by medical luminaries, concerned about establishing a career, and increasingly aware of intolerance.

[Pediatrics and travel culture: Spanish travel award-holders and the appropriation of laboratories on the periphery, 1907-1939]. / Pediatría y cultura de viaje: los pensionados españoles y la apropiación del laboratorio en la periferia, 1907-1939.

Starting from the hypothesis that laboratories played an important role in pediatrics becoming an autonomous discipline, this article studies the influence of scientific travel on the appropriation of new methodologies by Spanish pediatricians and child-care experts in the first third of the twentieth century. To do so, it analyzes the travel awards granted by the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas. It describes the scientific geography created by the program and takes an in-depth look at the role of mentors - especially Gustavo Pittaluga (1876-1956) - in this process. In addition to a prosopographical study of the group, it presents three cases that demonstrate the importance of the program in bringing pediatrics into contact with bacteriology, pathological anatomy and biochemistry.

Partiendo de la hipótesis de que el laboratorio jugó un papel importante en la autonomía disciplinar de la pediatría, este artículo estudia la influencia del viaje científico en la apropiación de nuevas metodologías por parte de los pediatras y puericultores españoles del primer tercio del siglo XX. Para ello, se analizan las pensiones concedidas a tal efecto por la Junta para Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas. Se describe la geografía científica creada por el programa y se profundiza en el papel de los mentores ­ especialmente de Gustavo Pittaluga (1876-1956) ­ en este proceso. Además de un estudio prosopográfico del grupo, se presentan tres casos que demuestran la importancia del programa en el encuentro de la pediatría con la bacteriología, la anatomía patológica y la bioquímica.

The Way It Was.

Mary Osborn was a native Californian. She was an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, where she worked in the laboratory of I.L. Chaikoff. She received her PhD at the University of Washington, where her work on the role of folic acid coenzymes in one-carbon metabolism revealed the mechanism of action of methotrexate. After postdoctoral training with Bernard Horecker in the Department of Microbiology at New York University (NYU), she embarked on her research career as a faculty member in the NYU Department of Microbiology and in the Department of Molecular Biology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine. In 1968 she moved as one of the founding faculty of the new medical school of the University of Connecticut, where she remained until her retirement in 2014. Her research was focused on the biosynthesis of the endotoxin lipopolysaccharide (LPS) of gram-negative bacteria and on the assembly of the bacterial cell envelope. She made seminal contributions in these areas. She was the recipient of numerous honors and served as president of several important scientific organizations. Later in her career she served as chair of the National Research Council Committee on Space Biology and Medicine, advisory to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), which produced an influential report that plotted the path for NASA's space biology research program in the first decade of the twenty-first century. Dr. Osborn died on Jan. 17, 2019.

Pediatría y cultura de viaje: los pensionados españoles y la apropiación del laboratorio en la periferia, 1907-1939 / Pediatrics and travel culture: Spanish travel award-holders and the appropriation of laboratories on the periphery, 1907-1939

Resumen Partiendo de la hipótesis de que el laboratorio jugó un papel importante en la autonomía disciplinar de la pediatría, este artículo estudia la influencia del viaje científico en la apropiación de nuevas metodologías por parte de los pediatras y puericultores españoles del primer tercio del siglo XX. Para ello, se analizan las pensiones concedidas a tal efecto por la Junta para Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas. Se describe la geografía científica creada por el programa y se profundiza en el papel de los mentores - especialmente de Gustavo Pittaluga (1876-1956) - en este proceso. Además de un estudio prosopográfico del grupo, se presentan tres casos que demuestran la importancia del programa en el encuentro de la pediatría con la bacteriología, la anatomía patológica y la bioquímica.

Abstract Starting from the hypothesis that laboratories played an important role in pediatrics becoming an autonomous discipline, this article studies the influence of scientific travel on the appropriation of new methodologies by Spanish pediatricians and child-care experts in the first third of the twentieth century. To do so, it analyzes the travel awards granted by the Junta para Ampliación de Estudios e Investigaciones Científicas. It describes the scientific geography created by the program and takes an in-depth look at the role of mentors - especially Gustavo Pittaluga (1876-1956) - in this process. In addition to a prosopographical study of the group, it presents three cases that demonstrate the importance of the program in bringing pediatrics into contact with bacteriology, pathological anatomy and biochemistry.