In 1675, when Dutch self-taught scientist Antoni van Leeuwenhoek first used his homemade microscope to examine a drop of rainwater, he made a discovery that would have an immeasurable impact on human health centuries later. Replicating his observations with lake, pond, well, and sea water, Leeuwenhoek revealed “within every drop of water…an amazing world of life,” teeming with “living creatures…wee animalcules.”1,2 Among the living creatures were the first bacteria ever visualized, earning Leeuwenhoek the title of Father of Microbiology and launching a microbiological tale spanning centuries and the globe.
Almost three hundred years later and an ocean away, American microbiologist Elizabeth O. King was tasked by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention with characterizing a novel pathogen responsible for a lethal outbreak of meningitis—inflammation of the membranes surrounding the brain. She classified the bacterium from clinical samples and named it Flavobacterium meningosepticum,3 which was later renamed Elizabethkingia meningoseptica ...
