Lauren Foley
Dr. Adair
BIO 1406
18 February 2019
The Forgotten Cure 1
Locusts, dysentery, and war all remarkably led to the discovery and progression made in the bacteriophage field. Locusts can ultimately take responsibility for the discovery of the bacteriophage. Of Course like many of the great discoveries of our time, phages were discovered by accident! Scientist d’Herelle discovered phages while studying sick locusts. During his experiments he noticed clear, spherical spots on his bacterial cultures. He investigated the spots but noticed nothing significant. Little did he know several years later while studying dysentery, these clear little spots would appear once again. In 1916, while at the Pasteur institute in Paris, d’Herelle was sent in investigate a breakout of dysentery that had spread among the troops in Paris. He cultured the samples from the sick patients, and to his surprise there they were again- those little clear spots. D’Herelle noticed the little clear spots were only seen in recuperating patients, and decide to investigate further. A new patient was admitted to the hospital and he decided to closely monitor her. During the first 3 days of observing her cultures- nothing. The tubes were full of bacterial growth, and opaque. On the fourth day he noticed something remarkable- one of the tubes was completely clear! When d’Herelle went to the hospital he found the patient had recovered. Dysentery and war go hand and hand in pushing for the discovery of phage, and ultimately led to this major breakthrough. When war erupts, all energy goes into the war efforts- even the scientific community’s efforts. At the end of the day its all about who is willing to pay for research and if the government wants to pay to help end a disease that is wiping out troops, then thats where the research will be conducted.It ultimately led to this major breakthrough in terms of phage discovery.
In addition to that one of the things that really surprised me was how early phages were actually being used to treat diseases. I had always thought that phage research, and therapies were something that started in the 2000’s, not the early 1900’s. To find out that scientists were using phages before they could even see them. D’Herelles predictions and insight into what he believed bacteriophages were, is absolutely astounding to me and show true creative thinking, considering he couldn’t even see the bacteriophages. With the invention of the electron microscope in 1940, which provided a visual insight into bacteriophages. When Luria first viewed what he referred to as “tadpole-shaped particles” they were shocked- because all scientist had assumed they were sphere shaped before this time. This then lead scientists to wonder, how did phages infect bacteria? This question then gave way to the famous Hershey and Chase experiment that altered the field of bacteriophages forever.
