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Sir Alexander Fleming (August 6, 1881–March 11, 1955)

Born in Ayrshire, Scotland and died in London, England, Alexander Fleming was the discoverer of two important antibiotic substances; lysozyme and penicillin.

Fleming attended St. Mary's medical school until World War I broke out. He participated in a battlefield hospital with many of his colleagues in the fronts of France. Being exposed to the horrid medical infections by the dying soldiers, he returned to St. Mary's after the war with renewed energy in searching for an improved antiseptic.

Both of Fleming's discoveries happened entirely by accident during the 1920s. The first, lysozyme, was discovered after mucus from his nose dropped into a bacterium laced petri dish (he sneezed). A few days later, it was noted that bacteria where the mucus had fallen had destroyed the bacteria. Searching for a stronger antibacterial agent, Fleming's labs were usually in disarray.

This led to be in his advantage as in September 1928 he was sorting through the many idle experiements strewn about his lab. He inspected each specimen before discarding it and noticed an interesting fungal colony had grown as a contaminant on one of the agar plates streaked with the bacterium Staphylococcus aureus. Fleming inspected the petri dish further and found that the bacterial colonies around the fungus were transparent because their cells were lysing. Lysis is the breakdown of cells, and in this case, potentially harmful bacteria. The importance was immediately recognized, however the discovery was still underestimated, initially used to clean his glassware. Fleming issued a publication about penicillin in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology in 1929.

Fleming worked with the mold for some time, but refining and growing it was a difficult process better suited to chemists. In part by believing its effect may only hold valid with small infections and further by not being well received within the community, the drug was not developed for mass distribution until World War II by Baron Florey and Ernst Boris Chain for the allied powers.

For his achievements, he was both knighted and received the Nobel prize for medicine in 1945 along with Baron Florey and Ernst Boris Chain.

Fleming was a lifelong member of the Chelsea Arts Club, a private club for artists of all genres, founded in 1891 at the suggestion of the painter James McNeil Whistler. Fleming was admitted to the club after he made "germ paintings," in which he drew with a culture loop using spores of highly pigmented bacteria. The bacteria were invisible while he painted, but when cultured made bright colors.

Serratia marcescens - red

Chromobacteriumviolaceum -purple

Micrococcusluteus - yellow

Micrococcusvarians - white

Micrococcusroseus - pink

Bacillus sp. - orange