Preview
Creation Date
2022
Description
Rebecca Lancefield's files (Fischetti laboratory, Bronk Building)
When Rebecca Lancefield began studying the bacteria known as hemolytic streptococci, no one recognized that these microbes caused common—and dangerous—human diseases such as "strep throat," scarlet fever, rheumatic fever, acute kidney disease, and impetigo. Beginning in 1918, and continuing over the course of six decades, Lancefield devised a system for classifying the dozens of types of streptococcal bacteria. This system, still in use today, laid the groundwork for understanding the clinical course of these diseases and how they are transmitted.
Photo by Lubosh Stepanek
Keywords
Rebecca Lancefield, streptococcal bacteria, hemolytic streptococci