A short biography of Dr. Alexander Fleming

A biologist, pharmacologist, botanist, but best known for his major discovery of antibiotic penicillin, Dr. Alexander Fleming was an expert in the fields of bacteriology and immunology. Fleming joined a research department and became assistant bacteriologist to Sir Almorth Wright, who was a pioneer in vaccine therapy and immunology. In 1908, he gained a BSc degree with gold medal in bacteriology and became a lecturer at St. Mary's until 1914. In 1918, he returned to St. Mary's Hospital, where he was elected professor of bacteriology of the University of London in 1928. Following World War I, Fleming actively searched for antibacterial agents, having witnessed the death of many soldiers from sepsis resulting from infected wounds. Antiseptics killed the patient's immunological defences more effectively than they killed the invading bacteria. It was then, during investigating the Staphylococci, he did the accidental discovery of penicillin. In the 1930s, Fleming's trials occasionally showed more promise, and he continued until 1940 to try to interest a chemist skilled enough to further refine usable penicillin. Fleming finally abandoned penicillin, and not long after he did, other scientists, Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford, took up researching and mass-producing it with funds from the US and British governments. By the D-Day in 1944, enough penicillin had been produced to treat all the wounded in the Allied Forces. In September 1928, the accidental discovery and isolation of penicillin by Fleming marked the start of modern antibiotics. Fleming has many awards under his belt. He also jointly received one of the prestigious Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1945. In 1955, Fleming died at his home in London of a heart attack. Though Fleming has died, but his invention of penicillin, considered as the most important discovery of the millennium, paved the way for modern medicine. His discovery of penicillin has saved and is still saving millions of people around the world.