Who was Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming was a Scottish bacteriologist who discovered penicillin in 1928. [2] He shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Ernst Chain and Howard Florey. The award recognised both the discovery and its application against infection, achievements requiring different scientific contributions. [14]
Early life and medical education
Born on 6 August 1881 at Lochfield, near Darvel in Ayrshire, he attended local schools and Kilmarnock Academy before moving to London. He worked in a shipping office for four years. He qualified at St Mary’s in 1906 and obtained London MB and BS degrees, with a gold medal, in 1908. [1]
St Mary’s, research and teaching
His career developed principally at St Mary’s alongside Almroth Wright. He became professor of bacteriology in 1928 and emeritus professor in 1948. He succeeded Wright as head of the Wright-Fleming Institute in 1946, directing it until late 1954. Laboratory research, teaching and institutional responsibilities accompanied his best-known discovery. [5]
War wounds and antiseptic research
During the First World War he worked with Wright in Boulogne. He investigated how some antiseptics damaged white blood cells without effectively eliminating bacteria in deep wounds. This comparison of antimicrobial activity and harm to the body’s defences preceded his penicillin discovery. [2]
His work also faced scientific criticism. A December 1923 referee report preserved by the Royal Society challenged the methods, apparatus and discussion in his comparison of antiseptics. The paper was ultimately published in 1924. This episode documents scrutiny of his procedures beyond the familiar story of a fortunate discovery. [16]
Lysozyme: observation and publication
Notebook 114 at the British Library records a reaction caused by nasal mucus on a bacterial plate on 21 November 1921. Fleming extended the tests to tears, saliva and other materials, examining temperature and dilution. The record distinguishes the initial observation from the later public presentation of the finding. [6]
In 1922 he described a bacteriolytic element in tissues and secretions in Proceedings of the Royal Society B: a substance capable of dissolving certain bacteria. This opened a line of research into natural defences, rather than providing a universal medicine against infection. [7] That year he and V.D.Allison published another lysozyme paper in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology. [8]
The 1928 observation and 1929 paper
While studying staphylococcal cultures, he observed colonies becoming transparent and undergoing lysis around a contaminating mould. He isolated the mould and examined its cultures’ activity. His June 1929 paper described antibacterial properties and potential use in isolating B.influenzae: laboratory research still distinct from a treatment manufactured at scale. [9]
In his 1945 Nobel lecture he explained the difficulty of concentrating and stabilising penicillin. Preparations lost activity and were not always available when a suitable patient appeared. He explicitly acknowledged researchers who subsequently developed the discovery’s chemical aspects, essential to transforming a bacteriological observation into a therapeutic tool. [3]
Other research during the 1930 s
Penicillin was not his entire research programme. A 1937–1940 notebook documents experiments with sulphonamides, pneumococci and culture methods, alongside a 1937 test of penicillin passing through cellophane. [17] In 1938 he published on the antibacterial power of blood from patients receiving a sulphonamide derivative, connecting laboratory investigation and treatment. [18]
From discovery to treatment: Paine and Oxford
In 1930 Cecil George Paine used crude filtrate from a mould supplied by Fleming to treat eye infections in two babies and a miner in Sheffield. The University of Sheffield identifies these as the first documented successful therapeutic uses. These early local applications differed from subsequent development of preparations for systemic infections. [11]
At Oxford, Ernst Chain and Howard Florey began renewed research in 1939. Norman Heatley contributed assay, extraction and culture techniques, while other specialists worked on purification, pharmacology and testing. Development was collective. [10] The team’s August 1940 Lancet paper, Penicillin as a chemotherapeutic agent, represents a separate milestone from Fleming’s initial work. [19]
Clinical trials and industrial production
On 12 February 1941 Albert Alexander received Oxford penicillin for a severe infection. He initially improved, but supplies ran out and he died. The case showed both the drug’s potential and the supply problem. Later results encouraged efforts to obtain sufficient quantities for complete treatments. [12]
Manufacturing required techniques beyond the original laboratory plates. Pfizer developed deep-tank fermentation and opened a mass-production facility in 1944, an achievement recognised as an industrial landmark by the American Chemical Society. Fleming’s discovery therefore sits alongside contributions by those who solved cultivation, engineering and manufacturing problems. [13]
Royal Society and the 1945 Nobel Prize
His 1943 election to the Royal Society recognised bacteriology, immunology and the action of chemotherapeutic agents. The record highlights lysozyme and penicillin alongside sulphonamide research and protection of white blood cells. [15] In 1945 he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine equally with Chain and Florey for penicillin and its therapeutic effectiveness. [14]
Resistance, scientific memory and legacy
He also anticipated antibiotic resistance, addressing it in 1945. His legacy combines the ability to treat bacterial infections with medicines and the need to preserve their effectiveness. The subsequent history of resistance shows that discovering an active substance does not permanently resolve the challenge of microbial evolution. [4]
He died on 11 March 1955. [5] His ashes rest in the crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral, marked by a memorial plaque. [21] At St Mary’s, the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum preserves his laboratory restored to its 1928 appearance and presents the discovery and development of penicillin through displays and audiovisual material. [20]
