title: 100th anniversary of Robert Koch's Nobel Prize for the discovery of the tubercle bacillus.
abstract: The year 2005 marks the 100th anniversary of Robert Koch's Nobel Prize. Here, we describe the scientific career of Robert Koch, the discoverer of the etiologic agent of tuberculosis but also of those of anthrax, cholera and wound infections. Equally important, Koch developed the methodologies and concepts that made medical microbiology a scientific discipline. Despite great efforts, however, Koch failed to conquer tuberculosis, which still causes enormous health problems worldwide 100 years after his Nobel award.
authors.affiliation: Max-Planck-Institute for Infection Biology, Schumannstrasse 21-22, 10117 Berlin, Germany. kaufmann@mpiib-berlin.mpg.de
authors.forename: Stefan H E
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kaufmann
authors.forename: Ulrich E
authors.initials: UE
authors.lastname: Schaible
mesh_terms: D000881:Anthrax / Q000266:history; D001432:Bacteriology / Q000266:history*; D002771:Cholera / Q000266:history; D049672:History, 19th Century; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D009613:Nobel Prize; D014376:Tuberculosis / Q000266:history*; D014946:Wound Infection / Q000266:history