What did Rebecca Lancefield do?

Rebecca Lancefield, in full Rebecca Craighill Lancefield née Rebecca Price Craighill, (born January 5, 1895, Fort Wadsworth, New York, U.S.—died March 3, 1981, Douglaston, Queens, New York), American bacteriologist who created a system of classification of the more than 60 different types of Group A streptococcal …

What was Rebecca Lancefield’s contribution to the study of streptococci?

In the 1920s she discovered the M protein on the surface of pathogenic bacteria – it is on the basis of these variations that Streptococci can be classified. Lancefield was also amongst the first to show that Strep. pyogenes infection was the cause of rheumatic fever (and that the alpha-haemolytic Strep.

Where was Rebecca Lancefield from?

New York, New York, United States
Rebecca Lancefield/Place of birth

What Lancefield group is Streptococcus pneumoniae?

Lancefield groups Some streptococci, for example S. pneumoniae, have not been assigned to a group because their antigen extracts fail to react with group antisera. With the exception of S. pneumoniae all the equine streptococci belong to Lancefield group C.

Who worked on streptococci *?

Meet Rebecca Lancefield, the revolutionary microbiologist whose work paved the way for antibiotics. Streptococcus is not the kind of bacteria that you mess around with. They’re notorious for causing illnesses as varied as strep throat, pneumonia, scarlet fever, and flesh-eating bacterial infections.

Who worked on streptococci?

Renowned 20th century microbiologist Rebecca Lancefield, however, loved Streptococci. So much so that she dedicated her 60-year scientific career to sorting them into different categories.

Why is Lancefield group important?

The Lancefield hot acid technique is capable of extracting both the protein type-specific antigens and carbohydrate group antigen and is superior to other methods in extracting the group D (teichoic acid) antigen.

What would be the most pathogenic Lancefield group and why?

Streptococcus pyogenes. S. pyogenes is also known as beta-hemolytic group A streptococcus or Lancefield’s group A strep (GAS). It is the most pathogenic bacterium in the genus Streptococcus.

How does Streptococcus grow?

Streptococci are spherical organisms that grow in chains because of incomplete separation after division of the cells (Figure 1).

What color is Streptococcus?

MACROSCOPIC APPEARANCE. Streptococcal colonies vary in color from gray to whitish and usually glisten. Often dry colonies are observed. Encapsulated strains may appear mucoid.

Where did Rebecca Craighill Lancefield go to college?

Her mother, Mary Montague Byram, married William Edward Craighill, a career army officer in the Army Corps of Engineers who had graduated from West Point. Lancefield received a bachelor’s degree in 1916 from Wellesley College, after changing her major from English to zoology.

What did Rebecca Craighill Lancefield call the C substance?

One was a polysaccharide, or carbohydrate, called the C substance. This complex sugar molecule is a major component of the cell wall in all streptococci. She could further subdivide its dissimilar compositions into groups and she designated the groups by the letters A through O.

Why did Rebecca Lancefield use precipitates to study bacteria?

Precipitates are the separations of a substance, in this case bacteria, from liquid in a solution, the serum, in order to make it possible to study the bacteria on its own. Lancefield soon recovered two surface antigens from these streptococci. One was a polysaccharide, or carbohydrate, called the C substance.

Who was Rebecca craigfield and what did she do?

Lancefield, Rebecca Craighill (1895-1981) Lancefield worked simultaneously on a Ph.D. at Columbia and on rheumatic fever studies at the Rockefeller Institute in the laboratory of Homer Swift, and her husband joined the Columbia University faculty in biology. Before World War I, physicians had suspected that Streptococcus caused rheumatic fever.