Alexander Fleming
Biologist,Scientist (1881 - 1955)
Alexander Fleming was a doctor and bacteriologist who discovered penicillin, receiving the Nobel Prize in 1945.
Synopsis
Alexander
Fleming was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, on August 6, 1881, and studied
medicine, serving as a physician during World War I. Through research
and experimentation, Fleming discovered a bacteria-destroying mold which
he would call penicillin in 1928, paving the way for the use of
antibiotics in modern healthcare. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1945
and died on March 11, 1955.
Early Years
Alexander
Fleming, the seventh of eight children, was born in rural Lochfield, in
East Ayrshire, Scotland, on August 6, 1881. He attended the Louden Moor
School, the Darvel School and Kilmarnock Academy before moving to
London in 1895, where he lived with his older brother, Thomas Fleming.
In London, Fleming finished his basic education at the Regent Street
Polytechnic (now the University of Westminster).
Fleming was a
member of the Territorial Army, and served from 1900 to 1914 in the
London Scottish Regiment. He entered the medical field in 1901, studying
at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School at the University of London.
While at St. Mary's, he won the 1908 gold medal as the top medical
student.
Early Career and World War I
Alexander
Fleming had planned to become a surgeon, but a temporary position in
the Inoculation Department at St. Mary's Hospital changed his path
toward the then-new field of bacteriology. There, he developed his
research skills under the guidance of bacteriologist and immunologist
Sir Almroth Edward Wright, whose revolutionary ideas of vaccine therapy
represented an entirely new direction in medical treatment.
During
World War I, Fleming served in the Royal Army Medical Corps. He worked
as a bacteriologist, studying wound infections in a makeshift lab that
had been set up by Wright in Boulogne, France. Through his research
there, Fleming discovered that antiseptics commonly used at the time
were doing more harm than good, as their diminishing effects on the
body's immunity agents largely outweighed their ability to break down
harmful bacteria -- therefore, more soldiers were dying from antiseptic
treatment than from the infections they were trying to destroy.
Fleming recommended that, for more effective healing, wounds simply be
kept dry and clean. However, his recommendations largely went unheeded.
Returning
to St. Mary's after the war, in 1918, Fleming took on a new position:
assistant director of St. Mary's Inoculation Department. (He would
become a professor of bacteriology at the University of London in 1928,
and an emeritus professor of bacteriology in 1948.)
In November
1921, while nursing a cold, Fleming discovered lysozyme, a mildly
antiseptic enzyme present in body fluids, when a drop of mucus dripped
from his nose onto a culture of bacteria. Thinking that his mucus might
have some kind of effect on bacterial growth, he mixed it with the
culture. A few weeks later, he observed that the bacteria had been
dissolved. This marked Fleming's first great discovery, as well as a
significant contribution to human immune system research. (As it turned
out, however, lysozyme had no effect on the most destructive
bacteria.)
The Road to Penicillin
In September 1928, Fleming returned to his laboratory after a month away with his family, and noticed that a culture of Staphylococcus aureus he had left out had become contaminated with a mold (later identified as Penicillium notatum). He also discovered that the colonies of staphylococci surrounding this mold had been destroyed.
He
later said of the incident, "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. But I suppose that was exactly what I did." He at first called
the substance "mold juice," and then named it "penicillin," after the
mold that produced it.
Thinking he had found an enzyme more
powerful than lysozyme, Fleming decided to investigate further. What he
found out, though, was that it was not an enzyme at all, but an
antibiotic -- one of the first antibiotics to be discovered. Further
development of the substance was not a one-man operation, as his
previous efforts had been, so Fleming recruited two young researchers.
The three men unfortunately failed to stabilize and purify penicillin,
but Fleming pointed out that penicillin had clinical potential, both in
topical and injectable forms, if it could be developed properly.
On
the heels of Fleming's discovery, a team of scientists from the
University of Oxford -- led by Howard Florey and his co-worker, Ernst
Chain -- isolated and purified penicillin. The antibiotic eventually
came into use during World War II, revolutionizing battlefield medicine
and, on a much broader scale, the field of infection control.
Florey,
Chain and Fleming shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or
Medicine, but their relationship was tainted over who should receive the
most credit for penicillin. The press tended to emphasize Fleming's
role due to the compelling back-story of his chance discovery and his
greater willingness to be interviewed.
Later Years and Honors
In
1946, Fleming succeeded Almroth Edward Wright as head of St. Mary's
Inoculation Department, which was renamed the Wright-Fleming Institute.
Additionally, Fleming served as president of the Society for General
Microbiology, a member of the Pontifical Academy of Science, and an
honorary member of nearly every medical and scientific society in the
world.
Outside of the scientific community, Fleming was named
rector of Edinburgh University from 1951 to 1954, freeman of many
municipalities, and Honorary Chief Doy-gei-tau of the American Indian
Kiowa tribe. He was also awarded honorary doctorate degrees from nearly
30 European and American universities.
Fleming died of a heart
attack on March 11, 1955, at his home in London, England. He was
survived by his second wife, Dr. Amalia Koutsouri-Vourekas, and his only
child, Robert, from his first marriage.
Here's my custom which i made for this great scientist!!!
And here's two photos that i make with Alexander Fleming
on his laboratory.
Black & White
Color
Informations and photos
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