Streptomycin
Estreptomicina, primer antibiótico contra la tuberculosis
- Date
- 1943 · confidence high
- Place
- Rutgers University, New Brunswick, New Jersey, United States
- Credited to
- Albert Schatz and Selman Waksman
- People
- 👤 Albert Schatz1920–2005
- Field
- Life & health
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Isolated from Streptomyces griseus through the systematic screening of soil actinomycetes. The first drug effective against tuberculosis and gram-negative bacteria.
Waksman received the 1952 Nobel Prize alone; Schatz, who did the isolation, sued for recognition.
What it led to
- closure of sanatoriums and a fall in TB mortality
- the first randomised controlled trial (MRC, 1948)
- industrial antibiotic screening (tetracyclines, erythromycin)
- resistance and combination therapy
Built on
- Penicillin1928–1943
- actinomycin and soil microbiology
Made possible
- Randomized controlled trial1948
- aminoglycoside antibiotics