Alexander Fleming Biography
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The Nobel Prize winner and discoverer of Penicillin, Alexander Fleming was born on 6th August 1881 at Lochfield farm near Darvel in East Ayrshire, Scotland. He was the seventh child among eight other siblings.
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 After completing his early education from Loudoun Moor School and Darvel School, Fleming was suggested by his older brother to opt a career in medicine. In 1901, Alexander was enrolled at St Mary’s Hospital, Paddington, London. He qualified and became a surgeon in 1906. During the war between Britain and Germany in 1914, Fleming offered his services to British Royal Army Medical to cure the dying soldiers from the infected wound.
However, there was no known cure to this mysterious infection that broke out all of a sudden. Fleming continued the search for anti –bacterial agent, which may have saved the life of thousand of soldiers due to infection. It was only after the World War I, when Fleming made an accidental discovery of some kind of blue mold which seemed capable of curing the infection. It was found that the particular mold belongs to Penicillium genus and thus named after it. Followed by a series of other experiments, later it was proved and led to the discovery of a magical medicine – Penicillin. This medicine has positive anti-bacterial effect on bacteria’s such as staphylococci, scarlet fever, pneumonia, meningitis and diphtheria.
Fleming did not get enough support and recognition from the medical fraternity initially and any further research was stopped. However, in 1930, scientists got enough evidence about the curative property of the medicine and appreciated Fleming’s effort. It was then penicillin was undertaken for mass production by the British and the American drug companies. More...
Alexander Fleming Discovers Peinicillin
His greatest gift to mankind ever! Sir Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928. He was a Scottish biologist and bacteriologist who had an immense understanding of medicine. He wrote many articles on bacteriology, immunology and chemotherapy.
Among other discoveries, his best known discovery of an enzyme called lysozyme in 1922 and another was the discovery of antibiotic substance Penicillin from a fungus called Penicillium notatum. In the year 1945, he was honored with a Nobel Prize for his achievement in Medicine, which he shared with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain.
In 1901, Fleming enrolled at the St. Mary Hospital, London to study medicine and opted to become a surgeon, when he passed out with distinction in 1906.
He started his career as an assistant bacteriologist to Sir Almroth Wright, a pioneer in vaccine therapy and immunology. Fleming's research at this time primarily involved the use of Paul Ehrlich's Salvarsan in the treatment of syphilis. Meanwhile, Fleming gained M.B. and then B.Sc with Gold Medal in1908 for his thesis “Acute Bacterial Infections,” and became a lecturer in the same hospital (St. Mary) till 1914. He was mostly devoted towards the research and study of bacteria for rest of his life. More...
How Old Was Alexander Fleming When He Died ?
Today the entire world remembers Fleming due to his greatest discovery of Penicillin. This great bacteriologist started his career in medicine after he finished his schooling in 1901. He entered St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in Paddington, which later became a part of the University of London. It was during the World War I, when the grave situation of dying soldiers due to infection compelled Fleming to discover some anti-bacterial agent. In 1928, he accidentally discovered what he always wanted to do - a blue mold (Penicillium notatum) which was quite effective to fight with the infection and was able to heal it as well. More...
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Sir Alexander Fleming born on 6th August 1881 was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. He was knighted and honored with Nobel Prize in 1945 for his excellence in medicine when he invented Penicillin along with Florey and Chain. 