Alexander fleming biography timeline report
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Alexander Fleming was born
- Alexander Fleming was born on August 6, 1881 in Lochfield, Scotland. He grew up in Ayrshire, Scotland, a quiet and peaceful town. At age 16, he passed all his high school exams, and got a shipping job in London.
- In October of 1901, Fleming joined St. Mary's Hospital Medical School after working hard to get qualified.
- In July of 1904, at 22 years old, Fleming passed his first medical exams and became a surgeon. As the search for the "Magic Bullet" continued, he looked for new ways to handle disease-causing microbes.
- In 1909, Fleming was qualified to do surgical work, but he remained interested in the treatments of infections. He became an assistant bacteriologist to Sir Almroth Wright, who was a pionjär in vaccine therapy and immunology.
- Fleming married Sally (Sareen) McElroy in 1915. They had a son, Robert.
- In 1921, Fleming discovered the lysozyme, an enzyme occurring in many body fluids with a natura
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Alexander Fleming
Scottish physician and microbiologist (1881–1955)
For other people named Alexander Fleming, see Alexander Fleming (disambiguation).
Sir Alexander FlemingFRS FRSE FRCS[2] (6 August 1881 – 11 March 1955) was a Scottish physician and microbiologist, best known for discovering the world's first broadly effective antibiotic substance, which he named penicillin. His discovery in 1928 of what was later named benzylpenicillin (or penicillin G) from the mould Penicillium rubens has been described as the "single greatest victory ever achieved over disease".[3][4] For this discovery, he shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain.[5][6][7]
He also discovered the enzymelysozyme from his nasal discharge in 1922, and along with it a bacterium he named Micrococcus lysodeikticus, later renamed Micrococcus luteus.
Fleming was knighted for his scientifi
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Discovery and Development of Penicillin
Penicillin, WWII and Commercial Production
The increasingly obvious value of penicillin in the war effort led the War Production Board (WPB) in 1943 to take responsibility for increased production of the drug. The WPB investigated more than 175 companies before selecting 21 to participate in a penicillin program under the direction of Albert Elder; in addition to Lederle, Merck, Pfizer and Squibb, Abbott Laboratories (which had also been among the major producers of clinical supplies of penicillin to mid-1943) was one of the first companies to begin large-scale production. These firms received top priority on construction materials and other supplies necessary to meet the production goals. The WPB controlled the disposition of all of the penicillin produced.
One of the major goals was to have an adequate supply of the drug on hand for the proposed D-Day invasion of Europe. Feelings of wartime patriotism greatly stimulated work on penicillin