Albert Schatz (2 February 1922 – 17 January 2005) was the co-discoverer of streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy used to treat tuberculosis and a number of other diseases. Originally, the discovery of streptomycin was credited only to Schatz's supervisor, Selman Waksman.
Schatz was born in Norwich, Connecticut of Jewish-Russian and English parents and was raised on a farm . After a change of direction from farmer to pedology following a cours...
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Albert Schatz (2 February 1922 – 17 January 2005) was the co-discoverer of streptomycin, the first antibiotic remedy used to treat tuberculosis and a number of other diseases. Originally, the discovery of streptomycin was credited only to Schatz's supervisor, Selman Waksman.
Schatz was born in Norwich, Connecticut of Jewish-Russian and English parents and was raised on a farm . After a change of direction from farmer to pedology following a course by Dr Jacob Joffe, Schatz began graduate school at Rutgers, at Selman Waksman's laboratory.
With a meager stipend, Schatz lived in a small room in a greenhouse at the university. In early 1942, he was drafted into the Army and served as a laboratory aid at Miamy Hospital, where he saw young soldiers die from infections resistant to penicillin. This led him to look for soil bacteria capable of inhibiting the growth of penicilin-resistant microbes. He sent some promising strains to Dr. Waksman for further testing.
In early 1943, Schatz was...
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