Alexander Fleming (1881-1955)

Sir Alexander Fleming was born in 1881 in rural Lochfield, Scotland.
He graduated from the medical school of St. Marys Hospital in London and began doing immunological research. He was a researcher at St. Marys throughout his professional career.
In 1909, a chemical treatment for syphilis was developed by the German Dr. Paul Ehrlich. The chemical was named salvarsan, which means "that which saves by arsenic". Fleming was one of the physicians to use salvarsan, which was injected intravenously.
During World War I, he was an army doctor and studied wound infections. He observed that antiseptics injured the body cells more than they injured the microbes.
In 1928, one of Flemings staphylococcus bacteria cultures became exposed to the air and became contaminated by a mold. He noticed that the bacteria had been dissolved in the area of the culture surrounding the mold. This substance was not toxic to humans or animals.
In 1929, the results of Flemings work were published in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology. In the late 1930s British medical researchers, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain, read Flemings article on penicillin. They replicated his work and were able to purify penicillin. After testing it on some patients, they discovered that it was effective.
In 1944, Fleming was knighted for his contribution to the field of medicine. He was thereafter known as Sir Alexander Fleming.
In 1945, Fleming, along with Florey and Chain, was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery of penicillin.
Alexander Fleming died in 1955.