Alexander Fleming

Alexander Fleming
(6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955)
Stefan Daniela Ana-Maria

Balneofiziokinetoterapie (Anul I, Sem II)
Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish physician, microbiologist, and
pharmacologist. His best-known discoveries are the enzyne lysozyme in 1923
and the world’s first antibiotic substance benzylpenicillin (Penicillin G).
“When I woke up after dawn on September 28, 1928, I revolutionise all

medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer. But I
suppose that was exactly what I did.” – Alexander Flaming
Accidental discovery
By 1927, Fleming had been investigating the properties of staphylococci. He was
already well-known from his earlier work, and had developed a reputation as a
brilliant researcher, but his laboratory was often untidy. On 3 September 1928,
Fleming returned to his laboratory having spent August on holiday with his family.
Before leaving, he had stacked all his cultures of staphylococci on a bench in a corner
of his laboratory.
On returning, Flaming noticed that one culture was contaminated with a fungus, and
that the colonies of staphylococci immediately surrounding the fungus had been
destroyed, whereas other staphylococci colonies farther away were normal, famously
remarking "That's funny". Fleming showed the contaminated culture to his former
assistant Merlin Price, who reminded him, "That's how you discovered lysozyme.
Fleming grew the mould in a pure culture and found that it produced a substance that
killed a number of disease-causing bacteria. He identified the mould as being from
the genus Penicillium, and, after some months of calling it "mould juice", named the
substance it released penicillin on 7 March 1929. The laboratory in which Fleming
discovered and tested penicillin is preserved as the Alexander Fleming Laboratory
Museum in St. Mary's Hospital, Paddington.
Fleming published his discovery in 1929, in the British Journal of Experimental
Pathology, but little attention was paid to his article. Fleming continued his
investigations, but found that cultivating penicillium was quite difficult, and that
after having grown the mould, it was even more difficult to isolate the antibiotic
agent. Fleming also became convinced that penicillin would not last long enough
in the human body (in vivo) to kill bacteria effectively.
Many clinical tests were inconclusive, probably because it had been used as a
surface antiseptic. In the 1930s, Fleming’s trials occasionally showed more
promise, and he continued, until 1940, to try to interest a chemist skilled enough
to further refine usable penicillin.
Fleming finally abandoned penicillin, and not long after he did, Howard
Florey and Ernst Boris Chain at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford took up
researching and mass-producing it, with funds from the U.S. and British
governments.
Fleming's accidental discovery and isolation of
penicillin in September 1928 marks the start of
modern antibiotics. Before that, several scientists
had published or pointed out that mould
or penicillium sp. were able to inhibit bacterial
growth, and even to cure bacterial infections in
animals.
Fleming was the first to push these
studies further by isolating the penicillin, and
by being motivated enough to promote his
discovery at a larger scale. Fleming also
discovered very early Modern antibiotics are tested using a
that bacteria developed antibiotic method similar to Fleming's discovery.
resistance whenever too little penicillin was

used or when it was used for too short a
period.
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.

Alexander Fleming

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Alexander Fleming

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Alexander Fleming

(6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955)

Stefan Daniela Ana-Maria

“When I woke up after dawn on September 28, 1928, I revolutionise all

resistance whenever too little penicillin was

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