Source: Chief Executive
One sometimes finds what one is not looking for.
Alexander Fleming was born in 1881. He studied at St Mary’s Medical School, London University and qualified with distinction in 1906. He then began researching under Sir Almroth Wright, a Pioneer in vaccine therapy. While he served as a captain in the Army Medical Corps in WWI, he also worked as a bacteriologist studying wound infections in a lab set up by Wright in a military hospital.
In November 1921, Fleming’s first major discoveries came about when he accidentally dropped his nasal mucus onto a culture plate bacteria. He discovered that lysozyme (an enzyme that can be found in saliva and tears) has a mild antiseptic effect as bacteria that has been mixed with mucus has shown to be dissolved after a few weeks. His study helped scientists understand more about how our bodies fight off infections.
Fleming was best known for his discovery of Penicillin. In 1928, a culture plate containing staphylococcal bacteria was contaminated with moulds which created a bacteria-free circle around itself. After further experiments, Fleming identified the mold as a rare strain of Penicillium notatum and found it effective against all Gram-positive pathogens. Fleming couldn’t produce Penicillin in large quantities, but in 1940, his work was continued by Howard Walter Florey and Ernst Boris Chain who were able to mass produce it.
His discovery of Penicillin was recognised as one of the greatest advances in therapeutic medicine and the beginning of the era of antibiotics. Before its introduction, there was no effective treatment for infections such as pneumonia.
Fleming received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine along with Howard Walter Florey (Australian pathologist), and Ernst Boris Chain (British biochemist) for the discovery of Penicillin in 1945. “I did not invent penicillin. Nature did that. I only discovered it by accident.” He said.
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