Alexander Fleming

Alexander Fleming
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Name	Alexander Fleming
Caption	Fleming in his laboratory
Birth date	6 August 1881
Birth place	Lochfield, Ayrshire, Scotland
Death date	11 March 1955
Death place	London, England
Nationality	Scottish
Fields	Bacteriology, Immunology
Workplaces	St Mary's Hospital, Imperial College London
Alma mater	Royal Polytechnic Institution, St Mary's Hospital Medical School
Known for	Discovery of penicillin
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1945), Knighted (1944)

Alexander Fleming. A Scottish physician and microbiologist, he is celebrated globally for his discovery of the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, penicillin. This serendipitous finding in 1928 revolutionized medicine and inaugurated the antibiotic age, saving countless lives from bacterial infections. For this monumental contribution, he was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945.

Early life and education

Born on a farm in rural Lochfield, Ayrshire, he was the third of four children to farmer Hugh Fleming and his second wife, Grace Stirling Morton. After early education at Louden Moor School and Darvel School, he moved to London at age thirteen, living with an older brother and attending the Regent Street Polytechnic. Initially employed as a shipping clerk, he entered the medical profession in 1901, using a legacy to study at St Mary's Hospital Medical School at the University of London. He qualified with distinction in 1906 and began research in the hospital's Inoculation Department under the guidance of renowned bacteriologist Sir Almroth Wright, focusing on bacteriology and immunology. His early work involved pioneering research on antiseptics and the treatment of infections like syphilis.

Discovery of penicillin

Returning to St Mary's Hospital after service in the Royal Army Medical Corps during the First World War, he was deeply affected by the high mortality from infected wounds. In September 1928, while studying Staphylococcus bacteria in his cluttered laboratory at St Mary's, he observed that a contaminated Petri dish had developed a mold, later identified as Penicillium notatum, which created a bacteria-free zone. He famously remarked on the mold's "antibacterial" activity, naming its active agent "penicillin." He published his findings in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology in 1929, noting its potential but struggling to isolate and stabilize the compound in large quantities. The task of purification and mass production was later achieved by a team at the University of Oxford led by Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain.

Later research and career

Following his initial discovery, he continued his research at St Mary's, investigating other antimicrobial substances. He served as a professor of bacteriology at the University of London and was appointed the principal of the Wright-Fleming Institute of Microbiology upon its founding in 1946. Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, he remained an active researcher and advocate for the therapeutic potential of penicillin, collaborating with the Oxford team and pharmaceutical companies like Glaxo and Pfizer to facilitate its development. He also conducted studies on other topics, including the properties of lysozyme, an enzyme with mild antibacterial properties he had discovered earlier in 1922.

Awards and honours

His groundbreaking work was recognized with numerous prestigious accolades. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1943. The following year, he was knighted by King George VI, becoming Sir Alexander Fleming. The pinnacle of recognition came in 1945 when he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain. Other honours included the Hunterian Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, the John Scott Legacy Medal from the City of Philadelphia, and being named a Foreign Member of the French Academy of Sciences. In 1999, he was posthumously listed among *Time* magazine's 100 Most Important People of the 20th Century.

Personal life and legacy

In 1915, he married Sarah Marion McElroy, an Irish nurse, with whom he had one son, Robert, who also became a physician. Following Sarah's death in 1949, he married a fellow bacteriologist and former colleague, Amalia Coutsouris-Voureka, in 1953. He died of a heart attack at his home in London in 1955 and was interred at St Paul's Cathedral. His legacy is profound; the discovery of penicillin fundamentally transformed medicine, making previously fatal diseases treatable and enabling advances like major surgery, chemotherapy, and organ transplantation. His story is often cited as a classic example of serendipity in science. Institutions like the Fleming Museum at St Mary's Hospital and his image on banknotes in Scotland commemorate his life and world-changing contribution.

Category:Scottish bacteriologists Category:Nobel laureates in Physiology or Medicine Category:1881 births Category:1955 deaths