Alexander Fleming British bacteriologist. Date of Birth: 06.08.1881 Country: Great Britain

Alexander Fleming's Biography

Sir Alexander Fleming, a British bacteriologist, was born on August 6, 1881, on a farm near Darvel, Ayrshire. He was the third of four children in his family. His mother, Grace Stirling Morton, was his father's second wife, and he had four half-siblings from his father's previous marriage. Fleming's father remarried at the age of 59 and passed away when Alexander was seven years old.

Fleming attended Loudoun Moor School and Darvel School before spending two years at Kilmarnock Academy. He then moved to London and enrolled at the Royal Polytechnic Institution. After working for four years at a transport company, Fleming inherited his uncle John's money. His older brother, Tom, who was already a doctor, suggested that Alexander follow in his footsteps.

In 1903, Fleming entered medical school in Paddington near St. Mary's Hospital, where he graduated with honors and earned a Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery degree in 1906. Two years later, he obtained a Bachelor's degree in bacteriology and began teaching at his own school in 1914.

On December 23, 1915, Fleming married nurse Sarah Marion McElroy from Killala, County Mayo, Ireland. They had one son, Robert, who became a doctor. Fleming's Majesty played a direct role in two of his major discoveries in the 1920s.

One day, while Fleming was ill, he accidentally contaminated a Petri dish containing bacteria with his own mucus. After a few days, he noticed that the bacteria were destroyed in the areas where the nasal secretions were present. In 1922, he published his first article on lysozyme and its powerful lytic action.

In 1928, Fleming left his laboratory unattended for a month to spend time with his family. Upon his return, he discovered mold on a Petri dish containing Staphylococcus aureus bacteria. He observed that the colonies of staphylococci around the mold became transparent, indicating their death, while uncontaminated cultures remained normal. When he showed his finding to Merlin Price, his former assistant, Price rightfully remarked, "You have discovered lysozyme in the same way." Alexander classified the mold as penicillin and was able to isolate the active substance responsible for the death of bacterial cells.

On March 7, 1929, he named the new antibiotic penicillin. Howard Florey and Ernst Boris Chain later developed methods for purifying penicillin, and its mass production began during World War II. Fleming's first wife passed away in 1949.

On April 9, 1953, Fleming married his second wife, Amalia, a Greek woman who died in 1986. The biologist himself suffered a heart attack and passed away on March 11, 1955, in his London home.