Lady microbiologist of the week : Emmy Klieneberger

Lady Microbiologist: Episode 3

Emmy Klieneberger-Nobel was born on February 15, 1892. She was a German microbiologist and a founder of mycoplasma bacterial research. She performed most of her research at the Lister Institute in London.  In 1943 she married Professor Edmund Nobel but Edmund died from a heart complaint just two years later. 

     Her work on the Lister Institute focused on mycoplasma, a sort of microorganism that was poorly understood at that point. During her career, Klieneberger-Nobel contributed significantly to mycoplasma research and her work provided the muse for later research into how these microorganisms cause communicable disease. In 1934, she was the primary to determine the differences between mycoplasmas and other species. She then developed a special agar blend and culturing technique that allowed organisms causing bronchopneumonia in rats and mice to be grown within the laboratory for the primary time. She later used this method to isolate and identify several pathogenic species of mycoplasma, including M. arthritides and M. pneumoniae.

     During warfare II, limited resources caused Klieneberger-Noble to show her attention to collecting micrographs of important species of bacteria, including Mycobacterium, Streptomyces, and Bacillus species. The pictures were taken using a Zeiss microscope and Leica plate camera that she purchased during a return visit to Germany in  1934. At a time, the importance of mycoplasmas as pathogens in humans, animals, and plants was recognized. The increasing relevance of Klieneberg-Nobel's fundamental work on their morphology and growth cemented her role in the concert with the founders of mycoplasma microbiology.

 

     Klieneberger published her autobiography in German. The English translation is available as a memoir. Her research-related book is "Focus on bacteria". She was the first honorary member of the International organization of mycoplasmology. She was made a member of Robert Koch Institute, Berlin on her 75th birthday.

Akanksha Joshi,

Microbiol,

RSML.