Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin while working on a disease-causing bacteria in the lab. He observed spores called little green mould on the bacterial culture plate that prevented the growth of bacteria. Who can be treated by the penicillin and how?
Answers
Answer:
did not invent penicillin. Nature did that. I only discovered it by accident.”
Alexander Fleming was a Scottish physician-scientist who was recognised for discovering penicillin. The simple discovery and use of the antibiotic agent has saved millions of lives, and earned Fleming – together with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, who devised methods for the large-scale isolation and production of penicillin – the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology/Medicine.
BEGINNINGS
On August 6, 1881, Alexander Fleming was born to Hugh Fleming and Grace Stirling Morton in Lochfield Farm, Scotland. Initially schooled in Scotland, Fleming eventually moved to London with three brothers and a sister, and completed his youth education at the Regent Street Polytechnic. He did not enter medical school immediately after; instead, he worked in a shipping office for four years. When his uncle John died, he willed equal shares 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 at London University.
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 recognised marksman. Wishing to keep Fleming in St Mary’s to join its rifle club, the club’s captain convinced him to pursue a career in research rather than in surgery, as the latter choice would require him to leave the school. The captain introduced him to Sir Almroth Wright, a keen club member and a pioneer in immunology and vaccine research, who agreed to take Fleming under his wing. It was with this research group that Fleming stayed throughout his entire career.
When World War I broke out, Fleming served in the Army Medical Corps as a captain. During this time, he observed the death of many of his fellow soldiers, not always from wounds inflicted in battle, but from the ensuing infection that could not be controlled. The primary means to combat infection was antiseptics, which frequently did more harm than good. In an article he wrote during this time, Fleming discussed the presence of anaerobic bacteria in deep wounds, which proliferated despite antiseptics. Initially,
Answer:
ExplanatiOften described as a careless lab technician, Fleming returned from a two-week vacation to find that a mold had developed on an accidentally contaminated staphylococcus culture plate. Upon examination of the mold, he noticed that the culture prevented the growth of staphylococci