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Science > Microbiologists > UK > Alexander Fleming 1881-1955
Alexander Fleming: ‘There is no evidence that Fleming read the literature or appreciated the importance of his “discovery” for many years afterwards,’ writes Roger Bayston.
Photograph: BBC
Alexander Fleming late to penicillin G Fri 3 Mar 2017 17.52 GMT Last modified on Tue 28 Nov 2017 04.23 GMT
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/03/
Alexander Fleming 1881-1955
From 1946 to 1948, American public health doctors deliberately infected nearly 700 Guatemalans — prison inmates, mental patients and soldiers — with venereal diseases in what was meant as an effort to test the effectiveness of penicillin. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/health/research/02infect.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/14/
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/02/
1928
Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) discovers penicillin
Just as in the case of Jenner and the smallpox vaccine, the story of penicillin traditionally centers on a lone genius and a moment of surprising discovery.
On a fateful day in September 1928, the Scottish scientist Alexander Fleming accidentally left a petri dish of Staphylococcus bacteria next to an open window before departing for a two-week vacation.
When he returned to find a blue-green mold growing in the petri dish, he was about to throw it away, when he noticed something strange:
The mold appeared to have stopped the bacteria’s growth.
Looking at the mold under a microscope, Fleming saw that it was literally breaking down the cell walls of the bacteria, effectively destroying them.
Seventeen years later, after the true magnitude of his discovery had become apparent, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/
Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin while working at a London hospital.
Twelve years later, scientists at Oxford University made penicillin into a readily available medicine.
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/
Penicillin eventually went on to revolutionize medicine, which by the 1940s was mass-producing the antibiotic to treat many bacterial infections.
"Scientists at Oxford University further developed penicillin," the AP explains, "and production was ramped up so that enough of the antibiotic would be available for the Allied invasion on D-Day in 1944."
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/01/
Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin in 1929 had largely been by accident.
A forgotten culture plate had grown a big blob of green mould.
In between the mould and clumps of yellow bacteria lay a host of dead microbes.
Something emanating from the mould had apparently killed them.
Fleming named his discovery penicillin, but concluded that it had little use or application.
After publishing a vague academic paper about its laboratory properties, he soon moved on.
For 10 years penicillin
was forgotten. and the other members of Florey's team recognised the potential of Fleming's discovery, it proved, however, extremely difficult to reproduce the mould Fleming had discovered by accident.
Not only was the right mould terribly elusive, it also proved very difficult to get the active ingredient out of the liquid which the mould produced.
Only one part in two million is penicillin, and separating penicillin from the impurities was to prove a highly complex procedure.
It was also wartime, which meant that research funds were scarce, equipment difficult to get hold of, and air raids a constant threat.
The breakthrough finally occurred when Heatley came up with the ingenious suggestion of transferring the penicillin back into water by changing the acidity.
Even then, the penicillin produced still contained masses of impurities.
Having extracted a small amount, the team then set about cultivating sufficient quantities to conduct trials on animals.
Then, in May 1940, trials were conducted on eight mice.
In meticulous handwriting, Heatley recorded the process in his diary:
"After supper with some friends, I returned to the lab and met the professor to give a final dose of penicillin to two of the mice.
The 'controls' were looking very sick, but the two treated mice seemed very well.
I stayed at the lab until 3.45am, by which time all four control animals were dead."
Typically low key, Heatley's diary entry notes merely that when he got home he discovered that he had put his underpants on back to front in the dark, merely adding: "It really looks as if penicillin may be of practical importance."
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jan/08/
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/27/
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2017/mar/03/
https://www.npr.org/2017/03/02/
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/03/01/
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/05/23/
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/mar/11/
https://www.theguardian.com/science/the-h-word/2013/jun/17/
https://www.theguardian.com/theguardian/2013/mar/12/
https://www.npr.org/2010/07/11/
https://www.npr.org/2004/07/25/3616227/
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2004/may/02/
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2004/jan/08/
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