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| Alexander Fleming |
Sir Alexander Fleming (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish biologist
and pharmacologist. Fleming published many articles on bacteriology,
immunology and chemotherapy. His best-known achievements are the discovery
of the enzyme lysozyme in 1923 and the antibiotic substance penicillin from the
fungus Penicillium notatum in 1928, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Walter Florey and Ernst Boris Chain.
Early life
Fleming was born on 6 August 1881 at Lochfield, a farm near Darvel in East
Ayrshire, Scotland. He was the third of the four children of Hugh Fleming (1816 –
1888) from his second marriage to Grace Stirling Morton (1848 – 1928), the
daughter of a neighbouring farmer. Hugh Fleming had four surviving children from
his first marriage. He was 59 at the time of his second marriage, and died when
Alexander (known as Alec) was seven.
Fleming went to Loudoun Moor School and Darvel School, and then for two years
to Kilmarnock Academy. After working in a shipping office for four years, the
twenty-year-old Fleming inherited some money from an uncle, John Fleming. His
older brother, Tom, was already a physician and suggested to his younger sibling
that he follow the same career, and so in 1901, the younger Alexander enrolled at
St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London. He qualified for the school with distinction
in 1906 and had the option of becoming a surgeon.
By chance, however, he'd been a member of the rifle club (he'd been an active
member of the Territorial Army since 1900). The captain of the club, wishing to
retain Fleming in the team suggested that he join the research department at St
Mary's, where he became assistant bacteriologist to Sir Almroth Wright, a pioneer
in vaccine therapy and immunology. He gained M.B. and then B.Sc. with Gold
Medal in 1908, and became a lecturer at St. Mary's until 1914. On 23 December
1915, Fleming married a trained nurse, Sarah Marion McElroy of Killala, Ireland.
Fleming served throughout World War I as a captain in the Army Medical Corps,
and was mentioned in dispatches. He and many of his colleagues worked in
battlefield hospitals at the Western Front in France. In 1918 he returned to St.
Mary's Hospital, which was a teaching hospital. He was elected Professor of
Bacteriology in 1928.
Research
Work before penicillin
After the war Fleming actively searched for anti-bacterial agents, having
witnessed the death of many soldiers from septicemia resulting from infected
wounds. Unfortunately antiseptics killed the patients' immunological defences
more effectively than they killed the invading bacteria. In an article he submitted
for the medical journal The Lancet during World War I, Fleming described an
ingenious experiment, which he was able to conduct as a result of his own glass
blowing skills, in which he explained why antiseptics were actually killing more
soldiers than infection itself during World War I. Antiseptics worked well on the
surface, but deep wounds tended to shelter anaerobic bacteria from the
antiseptic agent, and antiseptics seemed to remove beneficial agents produced
that actually protected the patients in these cases at least as well as they
removed bacteria, and did nothing to remove the bacteria that were out of
reach. Sir Almroth Wright strongly supported Fleming's findings, but despite this,
most army physicians over the course of WWI continued to use antiseptics even
in cases where this worsened the condition of the patients.
Accidental discovery
"When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn't plan to
revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world's first antibiotic, or bacteria
killer," Fleming would later say, "But I guess that was exactly what I did." .
By 1928, Fleming was investigating the properties of staphylococci. He was
already well-known from his earlier work, and had developed a reputation as a
brilliant researcher, but his laboratory was often untidy. On 3 September 1928,
Fleming returned to his laboratory having spent August on holiday with his family.
Before leaving he'd stacked all his cultures of staphylococci on a bench in a
corner of his laboratory. On returning, Fleming noticed that one culture was
contaminated with a fungus, and that the colonies of staphylococci that'd
immediately surrounded it'd been destroyed, whereas other colonies further away
were normal. Fleming showed the contaminated culture to his former assistant
Merlin Price who said "that's how you discovered lysozyme" Fleming identified the
mould that'd contaminated his culture plates as being from the Penicillium genus,
and—after some months' of calling it "mould juice"— named the substance it
released penicillin on 7 March 1929.
and pharmacologist. Fleming published many articles on bacteriology,
immunology and chemotherapy. His best-known achievements are the discovery
of the enzyme lysozyme in 1923 and the antibiotic substance penicillin from the
fungus Penicillium notatum in 1928, for which he shared the Nobel Prize in
Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Walter Florey and Ernst Boris Chain.
Early life
Fleming was born on 6 August 1881 at Lochfield, a farm near Darvel in East
Ayrshire, Scotland. He was the third of the four children of Hugh Fleming (1816 –
1888) from his second marriage to Grace Stirling Morton (1848 – 1928), the
daughter of a neighbouring farmer. Hugh Fleming had four surviving children from
his first marriage. He was 59 at the time of his second marriage, and died when
Alexander (known as Alec) was seven.
Fleming went to Loudoun Moor School and Darvel School, and then for two years
to Kilmarnock Academy. After working in a shipping office for four years, the
twenty-year-old Fleming inherited some money from an uncle, John Fleming. His
older brother, Tom, was already a physician and suggested to his younger sibling
that he follow the same career, and so in 1901, the younger Alexander enrolled at
St Mary's Hospital, Paddington, London. He qualified for the school with distinction
in 1906 and had the option of becoming a surgeon.
By chance, however, he'd been a member of the rifle club (he'd been an active
member of the Territorial Army since 1900). The captain of the club, wishing to
retain Fleming in the team suggested that he join the research department at St
Mary's, where he became assistant bacteriologist to Sir Almroth Wright, a pioneer
in vaccine therapy and immunology. He gained M.B. and then B.Sc. with Gold
Medal in 1908, and became a lecturer at St. Mary's until 1914. On 23 December
1915, Fleming married a trained nurse, Sarah Marion McElroy of Killala, Ireland.
Fleming served throughout World War I as a captain in the Army Medical Corps,
and was mentioned in dispatches. He and many of his colleagues worked in
battlefield hospitals at the Western Front in France. In 1918 he returned to St.
Mary's Hospital, which was a teaching hospital. He was elected Professor of
Bacteriology in 1928.
Research
Work before penicillin
After the war Fleming actively searched for anti-bacterial agents, having
witnessed the death of many soldiers from septicemia resulting from infected
wounds. Unfortunately antiseptics killed the patients' immunological defences
more effectively than they killed the invading bacteria. In an article he submitted
for the medical journal The Lancet during World War I, Fleming described an
ingenious experiment, which he was able to conduct as a result of his own glass
blowing skills, in which he explained why antiseptics were actually killing more
soldiers than infection itself during World War I. Antiseptics worked well on the
surface, but deep wounds tended to shelter anaerobic bacteria from the
antiseptic agent, and antiseptics seemed to remove beneficial agents produced
that actually protected the patients in these cases at least as well as they
removed bacteria, and did nothing to remove the bacteria that were out of
reach. Sir Almroth Wright strongly supported Fleming's findings, but despite this,
most army physicians over the course of WWI continued to use antiseptics even
in cases where this worsened the condition of the patients.
Accidental discovery
"When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn't plan to
revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world's first antibiotic, or bacteria
killer," Fleming would later say, "But I guess that was exactly what I did." .
By 1928, Fleming was investigating the properties of staphylococci. He was
already well-known from his earlier work, and had developed a reputation as a
brilliant researcher, but his laboratory was often untidy. On 3 September 1928,
Fleming returned to his laboratory having spent August on holiday with his family.
Before leaving he'd stacked all his cultures of staphylococci on a bench in a
corner of his laboratory. On returning, Fleming noticed that one culture was
contaminated with a fungus, and that the colonies of staphylococci that'd
immediately surrounded it'd been destroyed, whereas other colonies further away
were normal. Fleming showed the contaminated culture to his former assistant
Merlin Price who said "that's how you discovered lysozyme" Fleming identified the
mould that'd contaminated his culture plates as being from the Penicillium genus,
and—after some months' of calling it "mould juice"— named the substance it
released penicillin on 7 March 1929.
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Sources on Images & Information, & Citations
Wikipedia
Totally Explained
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Wikipedia
Totally Explained
Download the BIO in PDF ~ Notepages & Image Gallery Included