| Albert I. Schatz (1920 to 2005) Rutgers University In 1943, a 23-year-old graduate student named Albert Schatz co-discovered streptomycin, a powerful antibiotic hailed as a "miracle drug," and the first effective treatment against tuberculosis, a disease that killed more than a billion people over the last two centuries. One of the first in an emerging class of drugs derived from actinomycetes, streptomycin was also found to be effective against a number of gram-negative organisms, including those that cause typhoid, tularemia and plague. This discovery further increased the significance of his work as gram-negative organisms did not typically respond to the arsenal of penicillin and sulfa drugs available at the time. At the time of his discovery, Dr. Schatz was working in the Rutgers University laboratory of Selman A. Waksman, an eminent microbiologist whose laboratory was working on developing new antibiotics. Dr. Schatz volunteered to search for one that could be used to fight tuberculosis, and worked by himself in the basement, to reduce the risk of infection to his colleagues. After three and a half months, he isolated the antibiotic that became known as streptomycin and wrote the first paper announcing the discovery. Dr. Schatz received his doctorate from Rutgers in 1945. He has published several books and more than 700 scientific papers and taught at Brooklyn College, the National Agricultural College in Doylestown, PA, the University of Chile and Temple University. His other work included research on the toxic effects of fluoridated drinking water. In 1994, Dr. Schatz was awarded the Rutgers University Medal, the university's highest honor, for his work on streptomycin. |
