The forgotten typers
The rise and fall of Weimar bacteriophage-typing (1921–1935)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 20316013 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Claas Kirchhelle (0000-0003-0910-8133, Wellcome Unit for the History of Medicine, University of Oxford, 45–47 Banbury Road, Oxford OX26PE, United Kingdom, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 74 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 539-565 |
| Publication date | 2020-12-20 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Notes and Records the Royal Society Journal of the History of Science (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0035-9149 • E-ISSN: 1743-0178 |
| Publisher | The Royal Society (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1098/rsnr.2019.0020 |
| OpenAlex | W2980583325 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
Using bacteriophages to type (identify) bacteria was one of the most important tools of twentieth-century epidemiology. Challenging existing accounts’ focus on Anglophone research, this paper shows that modern phage-typing arose in German-speaking continental laboratories from 1921 onwards. Several factors contributed to this rise: the limitations of existing phenotypic systems; demobilized German bacteriologists’ interwar engagement with phages as a means to explore bacterial type variation; the existence of well-stocked and well-defined microbial culture collections with a strong focus on typhoid and paratyphoid; the standardization, free provision and calibration of phage diagnostic systems by a centralized laboratory network; and phage-typers’ implicit agreement to black-box ontological controversies about phages' nature in favour of a mission-oriented focus on practical epidemiological applications. The result was an experimental system that simultaneously treated phages as technical objects and epistemic things. Although the human network supporting phage-typing collapsed after the Nazi rise to power, Weimar-era phage researchers laid the foundation for modern phage-based diagnostics and epidemiology
Bacteriophage · Biology · Escherichia coli · Genealogy · German · Gospel · Phage typing · Political science · Standardization · Typing · Genetics · Historical Medical Research and Treatments · History · History of Science and Medicine · Law · Microbiology · Zoonotic diseases and public health
| Citations per year | 0.17 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2020 - 2020 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |