Alexander Fleming Biography | Animated Video | Discovered the first True Antibiotic

At a time when men were being infected and killed by bacteria, a man made an accidental discovery that changed the course of medicine. Alexander Fleming discovered bacteria-destroying mold, which he would call penicillin, the first antibiotics, paving the way for the use of antibiotics in modern healthcare. In today's video, we will look at the Nobel Prize laureate who made a significant breakthrough in by producing the first of what we now know as antibiotics. We hope this video gives you the courage you need to believe in yourself and pursue your biggest dreams. If you're new here, consider subscribing so that you won't miss other exciting videos like this. Sir Alexander Fleming was born on August 6, 1881, at Lockfield Farm, near Daval in Ayrshire, Scotland. Alexander was the third of four children of farmer Hugh Fleming 1816-1888, from his second marriage to Grace Stirling Morton 1848-1928, the daughter of a neighbouring farmer. Hugh Fleming had four surviving children from his first marriage. He was 59 at the time of his second marriage and died when Alexander was Alexander's earlier schooling between the ages of five and eight was at a small moorland school where 12 pupils of all ages were taught in a single classroom. Daval School was Alexander's next school, which involved an eight-mile road trip on foot every school day. At the age of 11, his academic potential was recognised and he was awarded a scholarship to Kilmarnock Academy, where he boarded for two years before leaving for London. Alexander arrived in London early in 1895, aged 13. This was the year his fellow Scot, Arthur Conan Doyle, published the Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, in which readers were horrified to learn their hero had died falling into the raging backfalls. Alexander lived in the home of his elder brother, Tom, who was a doctor of medicine. Most of the Fleming family ended up leaving with Tom, leaving the eldest brother, Hugh, running the farm. Alexander attended the Polytechnic School where he studied business and commerce. He studied in a class appropriate to his age, but his teachers soon realised he needed more challenging work. He was moved into a class with boys two years older than him and finished school at the age of 16. Alexander's business training helped him get a job in a shipping office, but he did not enjoy working there. In 1901, at the age of 20, he inherited some money from his uncle, John Fleming. He decided to use the money to go to medical school. He wanted to become a doctor like his successful brother, Tom. First, he needed suitable qualifications to enable him to enroll at medical school. These did not present any great difficulties. He passed his exams with the highest marks of any student in the United Kingdom. In 1903, aged 22, Alexander enrolled at London St. Mary's Hospital Medical School, graduating with distinction three years later as Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery. Rather than following Tom's footstep, Alexander was persuaded by Armourot's right and notoriety in immunology to become a researcher in his bacteriology group at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School. While carrying out this research, Fleming graduated in 1908 with a degree in bacteriology and a gold medal for top students. St. Mary's Hospital Medical School then promoted him to the role of bacteriology lecturer. Armourot's right was interested in our body's natural ability to fight infection. Fleming became particularly fascinated by the fact that although people suffer bacterial infections from time to time, our natural defense usually prevents infections from taking hold. In 1914, World War I broke out, and Fleming, aged 33, joined the army, becoming a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, working in the Fuge Hospitals in France. There, in a series of brilliant experiments, he established that antiseptic agents used to treat wounds and prevent infections were killing more soldiers than the infections were. The antiseptics, such as carbolic acid, boric acid, and hydrogen peroxide, were failing to kill bacteria deep in the wounds. Worse, they were lowering the soldiers' natural resistance to infections because they were killing white blood cells. Fleming demonstrated that antiseptic agents were only useful in treating superficial wounds but were harmful when applied to deep wounds. Armourot's right believed that a saline solution, salt water, would be used to clean deep wounds because these did not interfere with the body's defense system and attracted white cells. Fleming proved this result in the field. Wright and Fleming published their results, but most army doctors refused to change their ways, resulting in many preventable deaths. In 1915, while a captain in medical corps, Fleming married Sarah Marion McElroy. Their only son, Robert, became a general medical practitioner. In 1919, Fleming returned to research at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London. His wartime experience had firmly established his view that antibacterial agents should be used only if they worked with the body's natural defenses rather than against them. In particular, agents must not harm white blood cells. His first discovery of such an agent came in 1922. When he was 41 years old, Fleming had taken secretions from inside the nose of a patient suffering from a head cold. He cultured the secretion to grow any bacteria that happened to be present. In the secretion, he discovered a new bacteria called Micrococcus Lysodaticus, now called M. luteus. A few days later, Fleming was examining this bacteria. He was now suffering from a head cold and a drop of mucus fell from his nose onto the bacteria. The bacteria in the area where the drop fell were almost instantly destroyed. Always on the lookout for natural bacteria killers, this observation excited Fleming enormously. He tested the effect of other fluids from the body such as blood serum, saliva, and tears on this bacteria and found that bacteria would not grow where a drop of one of these fluids was placed. Fleming discovered the common factor in the fluids was an enzyme. He named his newly discovered enzyme Lysozyme. The effect of Lysozyme was to destroy certain types of microbes, rendering them harmless to people. The presence of Lysozyme in our bodies prevents some potentially pathogenic microbes from causing us harm. It gives us natural immunity to several diseases. However, Lysozyme's usefulness as medicine is somewhat limited because it has little or no effect on many other microbes that infect humans. Fleming had discovered a natural antibiotic that did not kill white blood cells. If only he could find a more powerful antibiotic, then medicine could be transformed. Today, Lysozyme is used as a food and wine preservative. It is naturally present in a large concentration in egg whites, offering protection to cheeks against infections. It is also used in medicine particularly in Asia where it is used in treatment for head colds, athlete's foot, and throat infections. In August 1928, Fleming did something fundamental. He enjoyed a long vacation with his wife and young son. On Monday, September 3, he returned to his laboratory and saw a pile of petri dishes he had left on his bench. The dishes contained colonies of Staphylococcus bacteria. While he was away, one of his assistants had left a window open and the dishes had become contaminated by different microbes. Annoyed, Fleming looked through the dishes and found something remarkable had taken place on one of them. A fungus was growing and the bacteria colonies around it had been killed. Further from the fungus, the bacteria looked normal. Excited by his observation, Fleming showed the dish to an assistant who remarked on how similar this seemed to Fleming's famous discovery of lysozymes. Hoping he had discovered a better natural antibiotic than lysozyme, Fleming now devoted time to growing more of the fungus. He identified that it belonged to the Penicillium genus and it produced a bacteria-killing liquid. On March 7, 1929, he formally named the antibiotics penicillin. Fleming published his results showing that penicillin killed many different species of bacteria, including those responsible for scarlet fever, pneumonia, meningitis, and diphtheria. Furthermore, penicillin was non-toxic and it did not attack white blood cells. However, Fleming faced several issues in trying to produce penicillin in large quantities but never made the breakthrough he needed to produce it in large concentrated quantities. Others, however, did. In the early 1940s, a team of scientists led by pathologist Howard Florey and biochemist Ernst Boris Chain at the University of Oxford transformed penicillin into the medicine we know today. In 1944, Fleming was knighted and became Sir Alexander Fleming. In 1945, Alexander Fleming shared the Nobel Prize in Medicine or Physiology with Florey and Chain. The award was made for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases. Fleming was always fulsome in his praise for Florey, Chain and their team and he downplayed his role in penicillin's story. Despite his modesty, he became a worldwide hero. Millions of people owed their lives to the antibiotics he had discovered. In 1945, he toured America where chemical companies offered him a personal gift of $100,000 as a mark of respect and gratitude for his work. Typically of Fleming, he did not accept the gift for himself. He donated it to the research laboratories at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School. In 1949, Fleming's wife Sarah died. In 1953, Fleming married Dr. Amalia Couture-Vorecka who was working in his research group at St. Mary's Hospital Medical School. On March 11, 1955, Alexander Fleming died at age 73 in London of a heart attack. His ashes were placed in St. Paul's Cathedral.