Researched
Streptomycin (First TB Antibiotic)
Streptomycin, found in a soil microbe in 1943, was the first antibiotic that worked against tuberculosis; a British trial proved it, and teaming it with other drugs held back resistance.
Open in the interactive tree →Albert Schatz isolated streptomycin from the soil microbe Streptomyces griseus on 19 October 1943 in Selman Waksman's lab at Rutgers University, and Waksman won the 1952 Nobel Prize for it. The UK Medical Research Council's trial of 1946-48, widely seen as the first randomized curative trial, showed that it helped patients with lung tuberculosis but also that the bacteria became resistant. PAS (1946) and isoniazid (1952) were added to slow resistance, and TB is still cured with several drugs at once, while the trial became a model for testing medicines.
Prerequisites
- Koch's Postulates and Pure Cultures1876-1884The tuberculosis germ had to be grown in the lab to test drugs on it.
- Antibiotics1928Penicillin showed that microbes make germ-killing substances worth hunting for.
Unlocks
- Randomized Controlled Trial1948The 1948 streptomycin trial is the first randomized trial of a drug.
- Antibiotic ResistanceopenResistance showed up within the first streptomycin trials.
- Eradicating TuberculosisopenToday's multi-drug TB treatment grew out of streptomycin and its partner drugs.