Alexander Fleming | Discovery of Penicillin

Alexander Fleming was a first person who                      discover Penicillin by a fluke 

             

BEGINNINGS

On August 6, 1881, Alexander Fleming was born at Lochfield Farm, Scotland, to Hugh Fleming and Grace Stirling Morton. Initially schooled in Scotland, Fleming eventually moved to London with three brothers and a sister, and completed his youth education at Regent Street Polytechnic.He entered medical school not soon after; Instead, he worked in a shipping office for four years. When his uncle John died, he bequeathed an equal share of his estate to his siblings, nieces and nephews, and Fleming was able to use his share to pursue a medical education. In 1906, he graduated with distinction from St. Mary's Medical School, University of London.

FORTUNATE CHOICES

Fleming did not intend to begin a career in research. While serving as a private in the London Scottish Regiment of the Territorial Army, he became a recognized marksman. Mary's to join his rifle club, the club's captain convinced him to pursue a career in research rather than surgery, as the latter choice would require him to drop out of school.The captain introduced him to Sir Almroth Wright, a keen member of the club and a pioneer in immunology and vaccine research, who agreed to take Fleming under his wing. It was with this research group that Fleming lived throughout his career.

When World War I broke out, Fleming served in the Army Medical Corps as a captain. During this time, he always saw the death of many of his fellow soldiers not from wounds sustained in battle, but from an impending infection that could not be controlled.The primary means of combating infection were antiseptics, which often did more harm than good. In an article he wrote during this time, Fleming discussed the presence of anaerobic bacteria in deep wounds, which spread despite antiseptics.Initially, his research was not accepted, but Fleming continued fearlessly and in 1922, he discovered lysosomes, an enzyme with weak antibacterial properties. History tells us that, when infected with a cold, Fleming transferred some of his pharyngeal mucus to a petri dish. Not known for terrible laboratory organization, he placed the dish on his desk amid the clutter and left it there, forgotten for two weeks.In that time, many colonies of bacteria grew and proliferated. However, the area where the mucus vaccine was administered remained clean. After further investigation, Fleming discovered the presence of a substance in the mucus that inhibits bacterial growth and named it lysosomes.He discovered lysosomes in tears, saliva, skin, hair and nails. He was soon able to isolate large amounts of lysosomes from egg whites, but later experiments found that this enzyme was effective only against a small number of non-harmful bacteria. Nevertheless, it would lay the foundation for Fleming's next great discovery.

‘MOULD JUICE’

In 1928, Fleming began a series of experiments involving common staphylococcal bacteria. An open Petri dish sitting next to an open window became contaminated with mold spores. Fleming observed that bacteria were dying near the mold colonies, as evidenced by the dissolving and clearing of the surrounding agar gel.He was able to isolate the mold and identify it as a member of the Penicillium genus. They found it to be effective against all Gram-positive pathogens responsible for diseases such as scarlet fever, pneumonia, gonorrhea, meningitis and diphtheria. He realized that it was not the mold itself but some 'juice' it had produced that killed the bacteria.He named penicillin 'mold juice'. Later, he would say: “When I woke up shortly after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly did not plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world's first antibiotic, or bacterial killer. But I guess that's what I did."

Although Fleming published the discovery of penicillin in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology in 1929, his work was greeted by the scientific community with little initial enthusiasm. Additionally, Fleming found it difficult to isolate this precious 'mold juice' in large quantities.By 1940, when he was considering retirement, two scientists, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, became interested in penicillin. Over time, they were able to mass produce it for use during World War II.

Fleming received many awards for his achievements. In 1928 he became Professor of Bacteriology at St. Mary's. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1943 and raised to the level of Emeritus Professor of Bacteriology at the University of London in 1948.The recipient of some thirty honorary degrees, in 1945, he won the most prestigious award, the Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine. He was made a Knight Bachelor by King George VI in 1944 and a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Alfonso X the Wise in 1948. Time magazine named Fleming one of the 100 most important people of the 20th century.