Medicine/Physiology) of Previously Untreatable for Demonstrating the Baron Florey Bacterial Infections

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

Medicine/Physiology) of Previously Untreatable for Demonstrating the Baron Florey Bacterial Infections The Medical School has a proud HOWARD FLOREY place in the history of the Professor of Pathology at Howard discovery of penicillin – “the most Sheffield, 1932–35 efficacious life-saving drug in the world”, which made possible Nobel Laureate Florey, the treatment of a wide range (Medicine/Physiology) of previously untreatable for demonstrating the Baron Florey bacterial infections. therapeutic potential of (1898–1968) penicillin Howard Florey. This photo dates from CECIL GEORGE PAINE when he was a member of the Medical School’s staff. Treated eye infections & Dr Cecil with a penicillin preparation in 1930 George Paine The first documented case of the therapeutic (1905–94) use of penicillin DID YOU KNOW ? The Medical School had Cecil George Paine. This photo was two future Nobel Prize taken in the mid 1930s. The power of penicillin to kill bacteria was first observed in 1928 by Alexander Fleming, winners on its staff in the who published his results but was unable to purify the antibiotic for medical use. He provided a culture of his penicillin-producing isolate of Penicillium notatum to 1930s – Howard Florey Cecil George Paine , who had qualified as a doctor at St Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London where Fleming worked. In 1929, Paine moved to Sheffield as Assistant Pathologist and Hans Krebs. at the Royal Infirmary and Lecturer in Pathology at the University. He used a crude filtrate produced by Fleming’s mould to successfully treat eye infections in 1929–30. Shortly afterwards he left the Infirmary, abandoning his experiments with penicillin while concentrating on puerperal sepsis in his new post as Consultant Pathologist at Paine’s case notes, of 28 August 1930, Sheffield’s Jessop Hospital (1931–70). He did, however, mention his findings to Fleming which show his use of ‘pinicillin’ at the and to Howard Florey, then Professor of Pathology at the Sheffield Medical School. foot of the first page. Florey went on, with a team at Oxford, to purify penicillin; doubtless Paine’s work helped convince him of its medical potential. Howard Florey qualified as a doctor in Australia in 1921. Awarded a Rhodes Scholarship, he worked his passage as a ship’s surgeon to England. After a short period at Oxford, he became a lecturer in the Pathology Department at Cambridge in 1927. Five years later, he was appointed Joseph Hunter Professor of Pathology at Sheffield. Here he showed that curare controls tetanus spasms and worked on the bacteriolytic agent lysozyme, another of Fleming’s discoveries, but this work languished for want of a biochemist’s input. Ironically, he left Sheffield just before the supremely talented biochemist Hans Krebs arrived. THIS BOARD IS PART OF THE MEDICAL SCHOOL HERITAGE Howard Florey returned to Oxford as Chair in the Department of Pathology in 1935 and PROJECT 2012. here his team, which included Ernst Chain, purified penicillin. On 25 May 1940, they Scan the QR code for further infected eight mice with virulent Streptococci and treated four with injections of crude details on the Faculty web pages. penicillin. All the treated mice survived, while the untreated died within hours. Further experiments demonstrated the amazing therapeutic potential of penicillin. Fleming, Florey and Chain were awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine/Physiology in 1945, and Florey received many other honours, including the Order of Merit and an honorary degree (DSc) from the University of Sheffield. He was ennobled in 1965. The contribution of Cecil George Paine to the use of penicillin was largely overlooked until 1986, when he was interviewed by Dr Milton Wainwright (Department of Molecular Biology and Biotechnology), and Dr Harold Swan (Medical School) found case notes relating to his work. Together, Wainwright and Swan reconstructed the story of how Paine used crude penicillin filtrates to successfully treat eye infections (ophthalmia neonatorum) in two babies. These case notes provide evidence of the See also: world’s first authenticated therapeutic use of penicillin. Paine was subsequently Timeline: B floor awarded an honorary degree (MD) by the University in 1987. entrance.
Recommended publications
  • Mollicutes Antibiotic Resistance Profile and Presence of Genital Abnormalities in Couples Attending an Infertility Clinic
    This is a repository copy of Mollicutes antibiotic resistance profile and presence of genital abnormalities in couples attending an infertility clinic.. White Rose Research Online URL for this paper: http://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/143263/ Version: Published Version Article: Maldonado-Arriaga, B., Escobar-Escamilla, N. orcid.org/0000-0001-8929-476X, Pérez-Razo, J.C. et al. (9 more authors) (2019) Mollicutes antibiotic resistance profile and presence of genital abnormalities in couples attending an infertility clinic. Journal of International Medical Research. ISSN 0300-0605 https://doi.org/10.1177/0300060519828945 Reuse This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC) licence. This licence allows you to remix, tweak, and build upon this work non-commercially, and any new works must also acknowledge the authors and be non-commercial. You don’t have to license any derivative works on the same terms. More information and the full terms of the licence here: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/ Takedown If you consider content in White Rose Research Online to be in breach of UK law, please notify us by emailing [email protected] including the URL of the record and the reason for the withdrawal request. [email protected] https://eprints.whiterose.ac.uk/ Special Issue: Infection and Bacterial Resistance Journal of International Medical Research 0(0) 1–12 Mollicutes antibiotic ! The Author(s) 2019 Article reuse guidelines: resistance profile and sagepub.com/journals-permissions
    [Show full text]
  • 書 名 等 発行年 出版社 受賞年 備考 N1 Ueber Das Zustandekommen Der
    書 名 等 発行年 出版社 受賞年 備考 Ueber das Zustandekommen der Diphtherie-immunitat und der Tetanus-Immunitat bei thieren / Emil Adolf N1 1890 Georg thieme 1901 von Behring N2 Diphtherie und tetanus immunitaet / Emil Adolf von Behring und Kitasato 19-- [Akitomo Matsuki] 1901 Malarial fever its cause, prevention and treatment containing full details for the use of travellers, University press of N3 1902 1902 sportsmen, soldiers, and residents in malarious places / by Ronald Ross liverpool Ueber die Anwendung von concentrirten chemischen Lichtstrahlen in der Medicin / von Prof. Dr. Niels N4 1899 F.C.W.Vogel 1903 Ryberg Finsen Mit 4 Abbildungen und 2 Tafeln Twenty-five years of objective study of the higher nervous activity (behaviour) of animals / Ivan N5 Petrovitch Pavlov ; translated and edited by W. Horsley Gantt ; with the collaboration of G. Volborth ; and c1928 International Publishing 1904 an introduction by Walter B. Cannon Conditioned reflexes : an investigation of the physiological activity of the cerebral cortex / by Ivan Oxford University N6 1927 1904 Petrovitch Pavlov ; translated and edited by G.V. Anrep Press N7 Die Ätiologie und die Bekämpfung der Tuberkulose / Robert Koch ; eingeleitet von M. Kirchner 1912 J.A.Barth 1905 N8 Neue Darstellung vom histologischen Bau des Centralnervensystems / von Santiago Ramón y Cajal 1893 Veit 1906 Traité des fiévres palustres : avec la description des microbes du paludisme / par Charles Louis Alphonse N9 1884 Octave Doin 1907 Laveran N10 Embryologie des Scorpions / von Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov 1870 Wilhelm Engelmann 1908 Immunität bei Infektionskrankheiten / Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov ; einzig autorisierte übersetzung von Julius N11 1902 Gustav Fischer 1908 Meyer Die experimentelle Chemotherapie der Spirillosen : Syphilis, Rückfallfieber, Hühnerspirillose, Frambösie / N12 1910 J.Springer 1908 von Paul Ehrlich und S.
    [Show full text]
  • Fleming Vs. Florey: It All Comes Down to the Mold Kristin Hess La Salle University
    The Histories Volume 2 | Issue 1 Article 3 Fleming vs. Florey: It All Comes Down to the Mold Kristin Hess La Salle University Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/the_histories Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Hess, Kristin () "Fleming vs. Florey: It All Comes Down to the Mold," The Histories: Vol. 2 : Iss. 1 , Article 3. Available at: https://digitalcommons.lasalle.edu/the_histories/vol2/iss1/3 This Paper is brought to you for free and open access by the Scholarship at La Salle University Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in The iH stories by an authorized editor of La Salle University Digital Commons. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The Histories, Vol 2, No. 1 Page 3 Fleming vs. Florey: It All Comes Down to the Mold Kristen Hess Without penicillin, the world as it is known today would not exist. Simple infections, earaches, menial operations, and diseases, like syphilis and pneumonia, would possibly all end fatally, shortening the life expectancy of the population, affecting everything from family-size and marriage to retirement plans and insurance policies. So how did this “wonder drug” come into existence and who is behind the development of penicillin? The majority of the population has heard the “Eureka!” story of Alexander Fleming and his famous petri dish with the unusual mold growth, Penicillium notatum. Very few realize that there are not only different variations of the Fleming discovery but that there are also other people who were vitally important to the development of penicillin as an effective drug.
    [Show full text]
  • Warburg Effect(S)—A Biographical Sketch of Otto Warburg and His Impacts on Tumor Metabolism Angela M
    Otto Cancer & Metabolism (2016) 4:5 DOI 10.1186/s40170-016-0145-9 REVIEW Open Access Warburg effect(s)—a biographical sketch of Otto Warburg and his impacts on tumor metabolism Angela M. Otto Abstract Virtually everyone working in cancer research is familiar with the “Warburg effect”, i.e., anaerobic glycolysis in the presence of oxygen in tumor cells. However, few people nowadays are aware of what lead Otto Warburg to the discovery of this observation and how his other scientific contributions are seminal to our present knowledge of metabolic and energetic processes in cells. Since science is a human endeavor, and a scientist is imbedded in a network of social and academic contacts, it is worth taking a glimpse into the biography of Otto Warburg to illustrate some of these influences and the historical landmarks in his life. His creative and innovative thinking and his experimental virtuosity set the framework for his scientific achievements, which were pioneering not only for cancer research. Here, I shall allude to the prestigious family background in imperial Germany; his relationships to Einstein, Meyerhof, Krebs, and other Nobel and notable scientists; his innovative technical developments and their applications in the advancement of biomedical sciences, including the manometer, tissue slicing, and cell cultivation. The latter were experimental prerequisites for the first metabolic measurements with tumor cells in the 1920s. In the 1930s–1940s, he improved spectrophotometry for chemical analysis and developed the optical tests for measuring activities of glycolytic enzymes. Warburg’s reputation brought him invitations to the USA and contacts with the Rockefeller Foundation; he received the Nobel Prize in 1931.
    [Show full text]
  • Cambridge's 92 Nobel Prize Winners Part 2 - 1951 to 1974: from Crick and Watson to Dorothy Hodgkin
    Cambridge's 92 Nobel Prize winners part 2 - 1951 to 1974: from Crick and Watson to Dorothy Hodgkin By Cambridge News | Posted: January 18, 2016 By Adam Care The News has been rounding up all of Cambridge's 92 Nobel Laureates, celebrating over 100 years of scientific and social innovation. ADVERTISING In this installment we move from 1951 to 1974, a period which saw a host of dramatic breakthroughs, in biology, atomic science, the discovery of pulsars and theories of global trade. It's also a period which saw The Eagle pub come to national prominence and the appearance of the first female name in Cambridge University's long Nobel history. The Gender Pay Gap Sale! Shop Online to get 13.9% off From 8 - 11 March, get 13.9% off 1,000s of items, it highlights the pay gap between men & women in the UK. Shop the Gender Pay Gap Sale – now. Promoted by Oxfam 1. 1951 Ernest Walton, Trinity College: Nobel Prize in Physics, for using accelerated particles to study atomic nuclei 2. 1951 John Cockcroft, St John's / Churchill Colleges: Nobel Prize in Physics, for using accelerated particles to study atomic nuclei Walton and Cockcroft shared the 1951 physics prize after they famously 'split the atom' in Cambridge 1932, ushering in the nuclear age with their particle accelerator, the Cockcroft-Walton generator. In later years Walton returned to his native Ireland, as a fellow of Trinity College Dublin, while in 1951 Cockcroft became the first master of Churchill College, where he died 16 years later. 3. 1952 Archer Martin, Peterhouse: Nobel Prize in Chemistry, for developing partition chromatography 4.
    [Show full text]
  • Howard-Florey-Maker
    _ ....II""lle,st'Ol)' of "Ie lin ~t tlt:Mc 'c y~ successfullY to rmat. pea WIth ~ IJ&. iBfoctiOus'diseases - begins-with &bit Qf IuC AI~ PI tIlil1g, a .S 9itisb ~lientlst.notlcEid In t$!B ftJal mould.,ad l:!"eveAted growth of ~ qerms {bacterial 1., lils ~ the ~In plot 0 me story 1'I0J0IYl1l$ Sr ~pvay Qf penidll 10 ~ years la1er by arl·Aus\ 1;1 Sdetl bam t'!undred s R Y~'89D this year, H'owar~ I: fIotey and h d ~ team's ~ systttma!JQ, detalla wotk "'~ Jl 11_ fJTIed petlicilin from an 53 i[l~1Jlg o~ , nto-a life saver. ' Emma ,au fY 50 IJSOO to tm e teliladll', at t'l'wiMlstral r:Ja • U verslty's JOOf\ CtJrti[l Scbool of Moolaal Rasecll'eh (HQw FJor~ ptayed 8 c roI'a II'l the-est)bllshmflnt at itI& School god ~!lr'S1ty t In h 11M), TIll> !/O"'"_....... ot l!1te.dJ1l1II d1Haie'&."4ICh .. po.~a~1I ~ Erl'1lil"1a's.lile w~!i8Vedby penicillin irllll IIlIaod .. 1111 IIihi' 1111\1:_ tva ~ntil>iol~; 8uI1hft;e phDl Cl(a pauilftl n Get'rJ1art refiJg g mp. tt WQf1d War II. ,1<42 -"ow ho"; b.d thlnP COIH~. Pft_ 1 lind Imagine hO\ she fett any years later. 2 ~ '1M .III~ !It II YOUl1'llll1J1 willi _I J."..,tllltw...... OlIl1dltlicln ,..,_by the tt.iituI t cooid~ blITlping iHlo mtJY wh fa lIay ..fI...boiIJg IIlven penldll" {JItIiJID 3" _ hIld ~ woriled- the man who made tile shown .~"in.IH",p"'-.ntIIIf tbll JIIII!Ilt dllly g~pIy mpooicillin ~bte.
    [Show full text]
  • Sir Howard Florey - Biography
    Sir Howard Florey - Biography Sir Howard Florey – Biography The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine Sir Howard Walter Florey was 1945 born on September 24, 1898, at Presentation Speech Adelaide, South Australia, the son Educational of Joseph and Bertha Mary Florey. His early education was at St. Sir Alexander Fleming Peter's Collegiate School, Adelaide, Biography Nobel Lecture following which he went on to Banquet Speech Adelaide University where he Documentary graduated M.B., B.S. in 1921. He Other Resources was awarded a Rhodes Scholarship to Magdalen College, Oxford, Ernst B. Chain leading to the degrees of B.Sc. and Biography M.A. (1924). He then went to Nobel Lecture Cambridge as a John Lucas Walker Banquet Speech Student. In 1925 he visited the United States on a Rockefeller Other Resources Travelling Fellowship for a year, returning in 1926 to a Fellowship at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, receiving Sir Howard Florey here his Ph.D. in 1927. He also held at this time the Freedom Biography Research Fellowship at the London Hospital. In 1927 he was Nobel Lecture appointed Huddersfield Lecturer in Special Pathology at Banquet Speech Cambridge. In 1931 he succeeded to the Joseph Hunter Chair of Pathology at the University of Sheffield. 1944 1946 Leaving Sheffield in 1935 he became Professor of Pathology and a Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford. He was made an The 1945 Prize in: Physics Honorary Fellow of Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge in Chemistry 1946 and an Honorary Fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford in Physiology or Medicine 1952. In 1962 he was made Provost of The Queen's College, Literature Oxford.
    [Show full text]
  • Your Guide to Postgraduate Research in the Medical School
    The Medical School. Your Guide to Postgraduate Research in the Medical School 2017 - 2018 Keep on your desk and refer to at all times October 2017 The Medical School. WELCOME TO THE MEDICAL SCHOOL May we take this opportunity of welcoming you to the University of Sheffield and in particular to the Medical School in the Faculty of Medicine, Dentistry and Health. This is the beginning of what we hope will be an exciting and successful career and our aim is to help you to access the many and varied activities which are available to you. We would like you to take a little time to read through this Handbook, which contains information that you should find helpful now, and during the course of your studies. The handbook is divided into 6 sections. Section 1 briefly provides a brief introduction to the departments in the Medical School, the staff involved in supporting you through your postgraduate research programme, and the various Medical School and Faculty committees that oversee postgraduate research provision. In section 2, you will find useful information required to start your studies. You are strongly advised to read through this and pay particular attention to the forms which need to be authorised and returned immediately. Section 3 contains information relating to the ongoing progress monitoring requirements, the confirmation review that will take place at the end of year 1, the thesis plan that you will be expected to submit at the end of your second year and some information that you will need to bear in mind when you are planning your thesis write up.
    [Show full text]
  • René Dubos, Tuberculosis, and the “Ecological Facets of Virulence”
    HPLS (2017) 39:15 DOI 10.1007/s40656-017-0142-5 ORIGINAL PAPER René Dubos, tuberculosis, and the “ecological facets of virulence” Mark Honigsbaum1 Received: 15 January 2017 / Accepted: 23 June 2017 / Published online: 4 July 2017 © The Author(s) 2017. This article is an open access publication Abstract Reflecting on his scientific career toward the end of his life, the French- educated medical researcher Rene´ Dubos presented his flowering as an ecological thinker as a story of linear progression—the inevitable product of the intellectual seeds planted in his youth. But how much store should we set by Dubos’s account of his ecological journey? Resisting retrospective biographical readings, this paper seeks to relate the development of Dubos’s ecological ideas to his experimental practices and his career as a laboratory researcher. In particular, I focus on Dubos’s studies of tuberculosis at the Rockefeller Institute in the period 1944–1956—studies which began with an inquiry into the tubercle bacillus and the physiochemical determinants of virulence, but which soon encompassed a wider investigation of the influence of environmental forces and host–parasite interactions on susceptibility and resistance to infection in animal models. At the same time, through a close reading of Dubos’s scientific papers and correspondence, I show how he both drew on and distinguished his ecological ideas from those of other medical researchers such as Theobald Smith, Frank Macfarlane Burnet, and Frank Fenner. However, whereas Burnet and Fenner tended to view ecological interactions at the level of populations, Dubos focused on the interface of hosts and parasites in the physio- logical environments of individuals.
    [Show full text]
  • The Miracle of the Mould Howard Florey and Colleagues Overcame Great Obstacles to Isolate Penicillin
    books and arts The miracle of the mould Howard Florey and colleagues overcame great obstacles to isolate penicillin. The Mould in Dr Florey’s Coat: The Remarkable True Story of the Penicillin Miracle by Eric Lax Little, Brown: 2004. 288 pp. £16.99 William Shaw HAAS/BETTMANN/CORBIS D. Well-researched and readable accounts of medical science and disease are always wel- come. The first thing to note about this new work by Eric Lax, whose earlier efforts have been a well-regarded biography of Woody Allen and an engaging account of cancer chemotherapy, is that its title prom- ises a great deal — and does so rather late in the day. There is little doubt that, after more than half a century of personal reflections and scholarship, the story of the emergence of penicillin as a life-saving medicine remains remarkable — not least for the obstacles overcome and for the personalities of the trio of Nobel laureates involved: Alexander Fleming, Howard Florey and Ernst Chain. But promise of a true story begs the question of what has been on offer since 1945. And was there a miracle? Well, nearly, at least in the sense that the small team assembled by Florey at the Sir William Dunn School of Norman Heatley (below left) oversaw the mass production of penicillin in 1940s America. Pathology in Oxford, UK, in the dark and difficult early honorary doctorate of medi- from farther afield, such as the Yale papers years of the Second World cine, the first non-medical of John Fulton, Florey’s close friend and War, hardly seemed like a person to be so honoured.
    [Show full text]
  • The Making of a Biochemist
    book reviews disappearance of kuru as an important In the late 1920s, he looked into the effect TION episode in our understanding of the risks of light on the inhibition by carbon monox- A associated with this type of infectious ide of respiration in living cells. This work process. Informing the wider community of encompassed considerations of photo- these risks may lead to a more helpful debate chemical processes in terms of quantum about the public health policies required chemistry, and the use of the manometer, NOBEL FOUND to minimize the chances of another BSE photoelectric cell and spectroscope. From epidemic. Books such as this are useful in the shape of the curve obtained by plotting this context. the effectiveness of light against its wave- Colin L. Masters is in the Department of Pathology, length, it was possible to deduce the resem- 8 The University of Melbourne, Parkville, Victoria, blance between the respiratory ferment and 3052, Australia. haemins. Warburg was awarded the Nobel prize for physiology or medicine in 1931 for his recognition of the haemin-type nature of the respiratory ferment and its underlying The making principles. The development of Warburg’s theoreti- of a biochemist cal thinking and experimental procedures are Otto Warburgs Beitrag zur ably chronicled in Petra Werner’s introducto- Atmungstheorie: Das Problem der ry essay. Her book is the first volume of an Sauerstoffaktivierung* edition of Warburg’s correspondence Brilliant but flawed: Warburg tended to pettiness. by Petra Werner deposited in the Berlin–Brandenburg Aca- Basilisken-Presse: 1996. Pp. 390. DM136 demy of Sciences. Regrettably, the 143 pub- 1950).
    [Show full text]
  • Penicillin: World War II Infections and Howard Florey
    In Focus Penicillin: World War II infections and Howard Florey The results were dramatic – the control mice rapidly succumbed, while all of the treated mice survived. These results attracted great interest from the scientific and military communities because, if Ian Gust replicated in humans, the drug had the potential to influence the Department of Microbiology and outcome of WWII. Immunology University of Melbourne It took Florey and 16 colleagues several months to produce suffi- Parkville, Vic. 3010, Australia Tel: +61 3 8344 3963 cient material to treat a handful of patients. The team worked under Fax: +61 3 8344 6552 fi fi Email: [email protected] dif cult circumstances with a lack of funding and equipment; at rst penicillin was made using old dairy equipment. Hospital bedpans were later used to grow the mould and the liquid containing fi Howard Florey is celebrated for his major contributions to penicillin drained from beneath the growing mould and ltered the large-scale production of the fungal product, penicillin, through parachute silk. during World War II (WWII), leading to life-saving outcomes The first patient they treated was a policeman, in whom an infected for many more than those with war wounds. scratch had developed into a life threatening infection. He was given Howard Florey was born in South Australia in 1898. After studying penicillin, and within a day began to recover. Unfortunately Florey’s medicine at the University of Adelaide he was awarded a Rhodes team only had sufficient drug for 5 days of treatment and when Scholarship to work in Oxford under Sir Charles Sherrington.
    [Show full text]