Assignment #5: Alexander Fleming

Sir Alexander Fleming lived from 1881 until 1955. He was a Scottish scientist that specialized in biology and pharmocology throughout his life. He is best known for his discovery of the antibiotic Penicillin and then his innovative methods for mass producing a stable form of the antibiotic for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine. Fleming's accidental discovery and isolation of penicillin in September 1928 marked the start of modern antibiotics.
Fleming served throughout World War I as a captain in the Army Medical Corps. After the war and all of the disease and death he had witnessed as a result of infected wounds, Fleming began searching for anti-bacterial agents. In 1922 he discovered the enzyme Lysosome which he referred to as the “body’s own antibiotic. In 1928 he accidentally discovered the antibiotic Penicillin. He published his findings in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology by 1929, but little attention was paid to it. This was mostly due to the fact that actually cultivating and using Penicillin was very difficult. By the 1940’s his work along with chemists finally created a usable form of Penicillin. He was quoted as later saying, "When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn't plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world's first antibiotic, or bacteria killer, but I guess that was exactly what I did." By 1945 just in time for D-day, they had invented a method for mass production and distribution of the antibiotic, and they had enough to treat all of the wounded allied forces.

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