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3.2 describe strain isolation methods developed in the 1940s
describe strain isolation methods developed in the 1940s
- Strain isolation were methods of separating a particular strain of a micro-organism, such as a bacterium, virus or fungus to then grow that particular strain and use it to benefit other humans, eg a strain of penicillin that was easier to grow in large quantities.
- Pathologist Howard Florey and biochemist Ernst Chain produced an extract of penicillin, the first powerful antibiotic in 1940. They isolated the antibiotic from Fleming’s mould cultures and demonstrated that it could cure infections in animals. However they couldn’t isolate enough of the penicillin from the mould to be commercially viable. The use of huge deep fermentation tanks provided with a good supply of air made it possible to produce more of the wonder drug, because the mould could grow throughout the 25 000 gallon tanks instead of just on the top.
- Selman Waksman studied soil-dwelling bacteria called actinomyces that give off substances that kill certain bacteria. In 1943, Albert Schatz, Elizabeth Bugie and Selman Waksman discovered two strains of actinomyces called streptomyces and found that they produced substances remarkably effective in fighting bacteria that cause tuberculosis, whooping cough, typhoid, and dysentery, then major killers. The substance was known as streptom