Today in History - October 19: Albert Schatz risked his life to cure tuberculosis. But someone else took the credit
The antibiotic streptomycin was first isolated on October 19, 1943, at Rutgers University in the US.
Streptomycin was found to be the first antibiotic cure for moderate to severe bacterial infections – including tuberculosis, one of the deadliest diseases on Earth.
Tuberculosis is estimated to have killed over a billion people over the last two centuries.
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Streptomycin was isolated by PhD student Albert Schatz after a few months of gruelling research working around the clock in a lonely lab, even risking exposure to the deadly disease himself.
Athough his supervisor Selman Waksman claimed the credit, alleging Schatz was just a lab assistant.
Waksman received the Nobel Prize for the breakthrough, along with substantial royalties.
Schatz went on to sue Waksman and Rutgers for his share of the royalties.
This legal battle became one of the biggest fights for credit in the history of scientific discovery.
Schatz was eventually given three per cent of the royalties, but was never hired to work in a top-level microbiology lab again.
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Schatz (left) went on to sue Waksman and Rutgers for his share of the royalties. Rutgers University
Testing the drug was a difficult procedure.
The first test patient died, and the second went blind as a side effect.
The third patient, Robert Dole, was dying from an infection after being hit with a shell during World War II.
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The third patient, Robert Dole, was dying from an infection after being hit with a shell during World War II. AP
Dole not only recovered, but lived until he was 98.
In his long life he would become a congressman, then a senator, then the Republican nominee for president in 1996.
He lost to Bill Clinton.
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