Fleming (Fleming), Alexander

August 6, 1881, Mr.. - March 11, 1955
Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming was born in the county of Ayrshire in the family farmer, Hugh Fleming and his second wife, Grace (Morton) Fleming.
He was the seventh child of his father and the third - his mother. When he was seven years old, his father died, and the mother had driven most of the farm, and her assistant was an older brother F. for his father, Thomas. F. visited a small rural school located nearby, and later Kilmarnokskuyu Academy, learned early to closely monitor the nature. At the age of 13 he followed the older brothers went to London, where he worked as a clerk, attended classes at the Polytechnic in Regent Street, and in 1900. joined the London Scottish Regiment. F. liked the military life, he earned a reputation as a first-class marksman and water polo player, by the time the Anglo-Boer War had ended, and F. never had a chance to serve in overseas countries.
. A year later, he received an inheritance of 250 pounds (which was almost 1200 dollars - a considerable sum in those days) and on the advice of Thomas applied for a national competition for admission to medical school
. On examination, he received the highest scores and benefited from medical school at the Hospital of St.. Mary. F. studied surgery and has withstood the tests in 1906. become a member of the Royal College of Surgeons. Remaining work in the pathology laboratory of Professor Almroth Wright Hospital St.. Mary, he was in 1908, Mr.. received a master's degree and Bachelor of Science in University of London.
The most outstanding achievements in the treatment of infectious diseases at the turn of the century were the first vaccine, serotherapy Emil von Behring and the doctrine of the macrophage Ilya Mechnikov. All of them are in one way or another were associated with immunotherapy and were based on the mobilization of natural forces of the human body to fight disease. Consequently, physicians and bacteriologists believed that further progress will be linked to attempts to change, enhance or complement the properties of the immune system.
Opening in 1910. salvarsan Paul Ehrlich only confirmed these assumptions. Ehrlich was busy looking for what he called the 'magic bullet', implying that such a remedy, which would have destroyed the bacteria trapped in the body without harming body tissues of the patient and even interacting with them. Salvarsan, the first of the modern medicines, only partly in line with this goal. Although he was recognized as an effective tool against the causative agent of syphilis - treponema pallidum, but different toxic side effects. Wright Laboratory was one of the first to get samples to test salvarsan. In 1908, Mr.. F. began to experiment with the drug, using it are in private practice of medicine for the treatment of syphilis. Well aware of all the problems associated with salvarsan, he nevertheless believed in the possibility of chemotherapy. For several years, however, research results were such that it could hardly confirm his assumptions.
After the entry of Britain in World War V. served as a captain in the Royal Army Medical Corps, taking part in the hostilities in France. Working in the laboratory studies of wounds, Wright and F. sought to determine whether antiseptics bring any benefit in the treatment of infected lesions. F. showed that such an antiseptic, as carbolic acid, while widely used for treatment of open wounds, kills white blood cells, creating a protective barrier in the body that promotes the survival of bacteria in the tissues.
In 1922, Mr.. After unsuccessful attempts to identify the causative agent ordinary colds F. purely accidentally discovered lysozyme - an enzyme that kills some bacteria and not harmful to healthy tissues. Unfortunately, . prospects for medical use of lysozyme have been rather limited, . because it was very effective against bacteria, . non-pathogens, . and completely ineffective against the pathogens,
. This discovery, however, prompted F. look for other antibacterial drugs, which would be harmless to the human body.
Another happy accident - Open F. penicillin in 1928. - Was the result of a confluence of circumstances, so incredible that in them is almost impossible to believe. In contrast to their neat counterparts, cleaning dishes with bacterial cultures after working with them, F. Culture is not throwing in 2 ... 3 weeks in a row, while his lab did not have a cluttered desk 40 or 50 cups. Then he took to cleaning, looking through the culture, one after another, so as not to miss something interesting. In one of the cups he found mold, which, to his surprise, oppressed seeded culture the bacteria Staphylococcus. Separating the mold, he found that 'the broth, which has grown mold ... acquired a distinct ability to inhibit the growth of microorganisms, as well as bactericidal and bacteriological properties with respect to many common pathogenic bacteria. "
Negligence F. and the observation made by him were the only two things in a whole series of accidents, contribute to opening. Mold, which proved to be infected with culture, belonged to a very rare type of Penicillium. Probably it was introduced from the laboratory, located one floor below, where the samples were grown mold, taken from the homes of patients suffering from bronchial asthma, with a view to making them desensitizing extracts. F. left who later became famous cup on the laboratory table and left to rest. Cooling has occurred in London, has created favorable conditions for mold growth, and then the warming has occurred - for bacteria. As it turned out later, it was coincidence of these circumstances had a duty to the famous discovery.
Initial studies F. yielded some important information about penicillin. He wrote that this' effective antibacterial substance ... has a pronounced effect on the pyogenic cocci [pyogenic Staphylococcus and Streptococcus] and the diphtheria bacillus group ... Penicillin, even in large doses is not toxic to animals ... One can assume that it will be effective antiseptic for external processing areas affected by penicillin-sensitive microbes, or with its introduction into the '. Knowing this, F., strangely enough, not made such an obvious next step, which 12 years later was taken Howard U. Florey and was to determine whether the rescued mice from lethal infection, if treated with injections of penicillin broth. F. only appointed him to several patients for external use. However, the results were contradictory and discouraging. The solution is not only difficult to clean, if it was his big numbers, but also has unstable.
Like the Pasteur Institute in Paris, Department of vaccination in the hospital of St.. Mary, where he worked for EF, there was through the sale of vaccines. F. found that in the process of making vaccine helps protect the penicillin from the culture of Staphylococcus. It was a small technical achievement, and F. extensive use of them weekly giving an order to produce large quantities of broth. He shared samples of culture Penicillium, with some colleagues in other laboratories, . but never mentioned on penicillin in any of the 27 articles or lectures, . published them in 1930 ... 1940., . even if it they went on Substances, . causing death of bacteria.,
. Penicillin, perhaps, would be forever forgotten, if not earlier opening F
. lysozyme. It was this discovery made Florey and Ernst B. Chesha to study the therapeutic properties of penicillin, resulting in product was isolated and subjected to clinical trials. All honor and glory, however, fell to F. The chance discovery of penicillin in the cup with a bacterial culture gave a sensational press story, able, capture the imagination of any man.
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1945. was awarded jointly F., Cheney and Flory 'for the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases'. Goran Liliestrand of the Karolinska Institute said in a welcoming speech: 'The history of penicillin is well known throughout the world. It is an excellent example of joint use of various scientific methods in the name of the great common goal and once again shows us the essential value of basic research '. In his Nobel lecture F. noted that 'the phenomenal success of penicillin led to intensive study of antibacterial properties of fungi and other lower representatives of the plant world ". Only a few of them, he said, have such properties. There is, however, streptomycin, open [Zelmanom A.] Waxman ... which surely will find application in practical medicine, will and other substances that have yet to explore. "
In the remaining 10 years of life, F. was awarded 25 honorary degrees, 26 medals, 18 prizes, 13 prizes and honorary membership in 89 scientific academies and societies, and in 1944. - Noble titles.
In 1915, Mr.. he married a nurse Sarah Marion McElroy, an Irish-born. In the couple had a son. After his wife died in 1949. health F. deteriorated. In 1952, Mr.. He married Amalia Kutsuris-Voureka, bacteriology and his former student. Three years later he died of a myocardial infarction at age 73.