Sir alexander fleming short biography

He was unsure if it would ever work in a proper manner.

Sir alexander fleming short biography

Luckily, a German Chemist, Ernst Chain, discovered the process to isolate and concentrate the germ-killing agent in penicillin some time later. Another Australian pharmacologist Howard Florey found out the ways of its mass production. During World War 1, the goverments of U. Florey and Chain were awarded the Nobel Prize in Fleming married his first wife, Sarah, who died in Their only child, Robert Fleming, went on to become a general medical practitioner.

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As it turned out, however, lysozyme had no effect on the most destructive bacteria. In September , 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, , 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. 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 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. 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.

He requested Florey for the isolated sample. Florey sent the incompletely purified sample, which Fleming immediately administered into Lambert's spinal canal. Lambert showed signs of improvement the very next day, [ 14 ] and completely recovered within a week. Upon this medical breakthrough, Allison informed the British Ministry of Health of the importance of penicillin and the need for mass production.

The War Cabinet was convinced of the usefulness upon which Sir Cecil Weir , Director General of Equipment, called for a meeting on the mode of action on 28 September The committee consisted of Weir as chairman, Fleming, Florey, Sir Percival Hartley , Allison and representatives from pharmaceutical companies as members. The main goals were to produce penicillin rapidly in large quantities with collaboration of American companies, and to supply the drug exclusively for Allied armed forces.

Fleming also discovered very early that bacteria developed antibiotic resistance whenever too little penicillin was used or when it was used for too short a period. Almroth Wright had predicted antibiotic resistance even before it was noticed during experiments. Fleming cautioned about the use of penicillin in his many speeches around the world.

On 26 June , he made the following cautionary statements: "the microbes are educated to resist penicillin and a host of penicillin-fast organisms is bred out In such cases the thoughtless person playing with penicillin is morally responsible for the death of the man who finally succumbs to infection with the penicillin-resistant organism. I hope this evil can be averted.

It had been experimentally shown in that S. The time may come when penicillin can be bought by anyone in the shops. Then there is the danger that the ignorant man may easily underdose himself and by exposing his microbes to non-lethal quantities of the drug make them resistant. It was around that time that the first clinical case of penicillin resistance was reported.

Their only child, Robert Fleming — , became a general medical practitioner. Mary's, on 9 April ; she died in Fleming came from a Presbyterian background, while his first wife Sarah was a lapsed Roman Catholic. It is said that he was not particularly religious, and their son Robert was later received into the Anglican church , while still reportedly inheriting his two parents' fairly irreligious disposition.

When Fleming learned of Robert D. Coghill and Andrew J. Moyer patenting the method of penicillin production in the United States in , [ 79 ] he was furious, and commented:. I found penicillin and have given it free for the benefit of humanity. Why should it become a profit-making monopoly of manufacturers in another country? On 11 March , Fleming died at his home in London of a heart attack.

His ashes are buried in St Paul's Cathedral. Fleming's discovery of penicillin changed the world of modern medicine by introducing the age of useful antibiotics ; penicillin has saved, and is still saving, millions of people around the world. The Sir Alexander Fleming Building on the South Kensington campus was opened in , where his son Robert and his great-granddaughter Claire were presented to the Queen; it is now one of the main preclinical teaching sites of the Imperial College School of Medicine.

His other alma mater, the Royal Polytechnic Institution now the University of Westminster has named one of its student halls of residence Alexander Fleming House , which is near to Old Street. It was a discovery that would change the course of history. The active ingredient in that mould, which Fleming named penicillin, turned out to be an infection-fighting agent of enormous potency.

When it was finally recognized for what it was, the most efficacious life-saving drug in the world, penicillin would alter forever the treatment of bacterial infections. By the middle of the century, Fleming's discovery had spawned a huge pharmaceutical industry , churning out synthetic penicillins that would conquer some of mankind's most ancient scourges, including syphilis , gangrene and tuberculosis.

By , penicillin, produced as pure compound, was still in short supply and not available for clinical use. When Fleming used the first few samples prepared by the Oxford team to treat Harry Lambert who had streptococcal meningitis, [ 3 ] the successful treatment was major news, particularly popularised in The Times. Wright was surprised to discover that Fleming and the Oxford team had not been mentioned, though Oxford was attributed as the source of the drug.

Wright wrote to the editor of The Times , which eagerly interviewed Fleming, but Florey prohibited the Oxford team from seeking media coverage. As a consequence, only Fleming was widely publicised in the media, [ 93 ] which led to the misconception that he was entirely responsible for the discovery and development of the drug. The popular story [ 97 ] of Winston Churchill's father paying for Fleming's education after Fleming's father saved young Winston from death is false.

Churchill was saved by Lord Moran , using sulphonamides , since he had no experience with penicillin, when Churchill fell ill in Carthage in Tunisia in Contents move to sidebar hide. Article Talk. Read View source View history. Tools Tools. Download as PDF Printable version. In other projects. Wikimedia Commons Wikiquote Wikidata item. Scottish physician and microbiologist — For other people named Alexander Fleming, see Alexander Fleming disambiguation.

Fleming in his laboratory, c. Darvel , Ayrshire, Scotland. Sarah Marion McElroy. Amalia Koutsouri-Vourekas. Bacteriology immunology. Main article: History of penicillin. Reception and publication. Purification and stabilisation. Medical use and mass production. According to the rules of the Nobel committee, a maximum of three people may share the prize.

Fleming's Nobel Prize medal was acquired by the National Museums of Scotland in and is on display after the museum re-opened in A secondary school is named after him in Sofia , Bulgaria. In Athens , a small square in the downtown district of Votanikos is named after Fleming and bears his bust. There are also a number of streets in greater Athens and other towns in Greece named after either Fleming or his Greek second wife Amalia.

Fleming metro station , on the Thessaloniki Metro system, takes its name from Fleming Street on which it is located. The Fleming crater on the moon is named after him and the Scottish astronomer Williamina Fleming. Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 25 October Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society. JSTOR S2CID Advances in Applied Microbiology.

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