[3] Common side effects include vertigo, vomiting, numbness of the face, fever, and rash.

[11] Streptomycin, in combination with penicillin, is used in a standard antibiotic cocktail to prevent bacterial infection in cell culture.

Since it binds to ribosomes and precipitates out of solution, it serves as a method for removing rRNA, mRNA, and even DNA if the extract is from a prokaryote.

[15] Common side effects include vertigo, vomiting, numbness of the face, fever, and rash.

Streptomycin was first isolated on October 19, 1943, by Albert Schatz, a PhD student in the laboratory of Selman Abraham Waksman at Rutgers University in a research project funded by Merck and Co.[20][21] Waksman and his laboratory staff discovered several antibiotics, including actinomycin, clavacin, streptothricin, streptomycin, grisein, neomycin, fradicin, candicidin, and candidin.

In 1952 Waksman was the recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in recognition "for his discovery of streptomycin, the first antibiotic active against tuberculosis".

[23][24][25][26][27] Schatz sued both Dr. Waksman and the Rutgers Research and Endowment Foundation, wanting to be given credit as co-discover and to receive the royalties for the streptomycin.

[citation needed] Bugie was pursuing a master's degree in Waksman's lab at Rutgers University at this time.

[28] Although Bugie was considered to be the second author on the Proceedings of the Society for Experimental Biology paper, she was not listed on the patent submission.

[35]: 209–241  The difficulty at first was even producing enough streptomycin to do a trial, because the research laboratory methods of creating small batches had not yet been translated to commercial large-batch production.

[35]: 209–241 At the end of World War II, the United States Army experimented with streptomycin to treat life-threatening infections at a military hospital in Battle Creek, Michigan.

In March 1946, the third person—Robert J. Dole, later Majority Leader of the United States Senate and presidential nominee—experienced a rapid and robust recovery.

[38] Results showed efficacy against TB, albeit with minor toxicity and acquired bacterial resistance to the drug.