Albert Ludwig Sigesmund Neisser was a physician and scientist working in Poland who, in 1879, identified the bacterium that causes gonorrhea. Before Neisser’s discovery, physicians and scientists were unsure of what causes gonorrhea, a sexually transmitted infection, or STI, that typically causes genital pain and discharge in those infected. Using newly available microscopy techniques, Neisser examined genital discharge from patients with gonorrhea and observed the bacteria that eventually became known as Neisseria gonorrhoeae, named in his honor. Beyond discovering the bacterial cause of gonorrhea, Neisser also directed a dermatology clinic in Breslau, Poland, and researched other diseases including syphilis and leprosy. In addition to his discoveries, he also experienced scandals and ethical controversies regarding his research practices, which resulted in the implementation of directives regarding informed consent. By identifying the causative agent of gonorrhea, Neisser enabled future physicians and scientists to develop treatments for a disease that can cause infertility and be passed from mother to child causing serious illness in infants.

In 2010, Maria Dominguez-Bello, Elizabeth Costello, Monica Contreras, and colleagues published “Delivery Mode Shapes the Acquisition and Structure of the Initial Microbiota Across Multiple Body Habitats in Newborns,” hereafter “Delivery Mode” in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The term microbiota, which the authors use interchangeably with the term microbiome, refers to the collection of microorganisms, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses, found in and on the human body. The development of the microbiome, which begins at birth when a newborn is first exposed to the mother’s microbiota, impacts the development of the immune system, and how a person’s body responds to disease. Though researchers in the early 2000s were aware of a connection between delivery mode and the neonatal gut microbiome, they knew little about how delivery mode affects a neonate’s microbiome beyond the gut. Dominguez-Bello and associates’ experiment was one of the first to show that a neonate’s microbial community is uniform across their body and elaborate on the differences in microbiomes across delivery methods, which can make neonates born via c-section more susceptible to conditions such as asthma.