Frederick Twort
- Born
- Unknown
Frederick Twort was a British bacteriologist and the father to modern virology, having been the first to discover viruses that infect bacteria, called bacteriophages.
Twort grew up in Surrey, England and by 16 had already enlisted at St Thomas’s Hospital in London to study medicine. During his studies he developed an interest in laboratory research and upon graduation he stayed at the hospital to work on bacteria. Under tutelage of bacteriologist Professor William Bulloch FRS Twort became a noted experimental biologist.
Spending eight years in Bulloch’s lab, Twort emerged as one of the best young biologists in the country. In 1907 he found that the physical characteristics of some bacteria were not stable but could change rapidly through generations. He managed to experimentally evolve a sub-species of the Salmonella bacterium over only 14 days to make them use a different type of sugar as an energy source previously indigestible to them.
Twort moved to the Brown Institution in London in 1909 to pursue independent research. His first big breakthrough there came with the discovery of bacterial growth factors. These are certain organic or essential substances that the organism requires for growth. He won international acclaim for developing a medium that would grow a species of Mycobacterium. He had used extracts from other dead bacteria, but it wasn’t until 1936 that the essential growth factor found within them was actually vitamin K.
In 1915 Twort published a paper on the ‘infectious disease of the micrococcus’ – he had discovered for the first time a virus that could infect bacteria. Two years later, a Canadian microbiologist Felix d’Herelle, made a similar discovery and later named the organisms bacteriophages – both are credited for the discovery.
The First World War had caused many problems for Twort, who couldn’t receive funding for much of his research at the Brown Institution and went to Greece for a year to carry out research. Upon his return, Twort managed to keep Brown running until 1944, when in the Second World War the laboratories were bombed and destroyed.
In recognition of his achievements, Twort was awarded a fellowship to the Royal Society in 1929 and became a professor of bacteriology at the University of London in 1931. He passed away in 1950.