Albert Israel Schatz (2 February 1920 – 17 January 2005) was an American microbiologist and academic who discovered streptomycin,[1] the first antibiotic known to be effective for the treatment of tuberculosis.

Topping his class at Rutgers in 1942, he immediately worked under Selman Waksman, then head of the Department of Soil Microbiology, but was drafted to the US Army to serve in the World War II.

Then, the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded solely to Waksman explicitly "for his discovery of streptomycin,"[3] which The Lancet remarked as "a considerable mistake by failing to recognize Schatz's contribution.

[5] The day he received his result in May,[6] he joined Selman Waksman who headed the Department of Soil Microbiology at Rutgers, as a postgraduate assistant.

Waksman had been directing a research program searching for new antibiotic compounds produced by microorganisms in ordinary soil since 1937, and his teams were to discover more than 10 such chemicals between 1940 and 1952.

As a man with microbiology background, he was posted as a bacteriologist in the Medical Detachment of the Air Force, stationed in army hospitals in Florida.

While working as the Chief of the Division of Microbiology at the Philadelphia General Hospital, Schatz and his uncle Joseph J. Martin at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Medicine developed a theory on the cause of tooth decay.

[7] On his return to Waksman's lab in 1943, Schatz offered to take on the search for an antibiotic effective against Gram-negative bacteria responsible for other penicillin-resistant diseases.

I worked day and night to produce that streptomycin because I wanted Feldman to do toxicity and in vivo tests as soon as possible, and because Waksman did not assign anyone to help me.

[15] The bacteria from chicken used in the experiment was provided by another researcher Doris Jones, and Elizabeth Bugie performed the antibacterial tests.

[19] Their conclusion states:Streptomycin, like streptothricin, possesses strong bactericidal properties, and preliminary experiments tended to indicate that the two substances are also comparable in their low toxicity to animals and in their in vivo activity.

[17]With his lab mates, Schatz announced on 4 August 1944 the effectiveness of streptomycin in vivo in experimental tuberculosis in mice.

[27] By 1946, experiments conducted under the projects of Merck in the UK and USA had proven streptomycin's effectiveness against TB, bubonic plague, cholera, typhoid fever, and other penicillin-resistant diseases.

[31][33] In the patent agreement on 1 May 1946, both Schatz and Waksman agreed to receive a token $1.00 as recognition for being the inventors of the streptomycin production method, so that the beneficiary would be Rutgers and not individuals.

[6] Schatz agreed to make streptomycin available as readily and inexpensively as possible, and he understood that the foundation also was to receive no profit from the discovery.

In March 1950, Schatz, filed a lawsuit against Waksman and the foundation for a share of the royalties and recognition of his role in the discovery of streptomycin.

"[6] An out-of-court settlement awarded Schatz $120,000 for the foreign patent rights, and 3% of the royalties, representing about $15,000 per annum for several years.

[5] In October 1952, Waksman was announced as the sole winner of the 1952 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic effective against tuberculosis.

"[3] The Nobel committee statement given by presenter Arvid Wallgren at the award ceremony in Stockholm on 12 December 1952 was "Selman Waksman, the Caroline Medical Institute has awarded you this year's Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for your ingenious, systematic and successful studies of the soil microbes that led to the discovery of streptomycin"[31] rather than "for the discovery of streptomycin" as the original announcement said.

[38] These compounds were later commonly referred to as "Trojan horse" antibiotics for their ability to act as their molecular targets inside the cells.

[42] When he began he was surprised to learn that the cause of tooth decay was tacitly assumed to be acidity in the mouth, without any experimental evidence.

According to the theory, caries develop as bacteria invade the teeth cavities in the presence of organic compounds (chelating agents) such as sugars, lipids and citrates to break down (proteolyze) the tooth protein (keratin); the process is independent of the pH of the environment.

[45] He also criticized a scientific paper published in 1966 that presented the advantages of water fluoridation in the Curico province of Chile,[46] arguing that the data was incomplete.

In 1978, the US Department of Health Center for Disease Control in Atlanta issued a public statement that Schatz's data was improperly analyzed and did not present the true relationship between water fluoridation and cancer and mortality with the conclusion: "Water fluoridation for the purpose of dental caries prophylaxis poses no hazard relevant to cancer causation.

[12] As a result of the streptomycin controversy, regulations were passed in the US aimed at ensuring graduate students get due recognition and reward for their contributions.