Jump to content

Howard Florey

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 82.44.186.202 (talk) at 16:14, 27 March 2014. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Lord Florey of Adelaide
OM FRS FRCP
Born
Howard Walter Florey

24 September 1898 (1898-09-24)
Adelaide, South Australia
Died21 February 1968 (1968-02-22) (aged 69)
Oxford, United Kingdom
NationalityAustralian
Alma materUniversity of Adelaide
Magdalen College, Oxford
Known forDiscovery of penicillin's properties
AwardsNobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1945)
Fellow of the Royal Society (1941)[1]
Lister Medal (1945)[2]
Knight Bachelor
Scientific career
FieldsBacteriology, immunology
InstitutionsUniversity of Adelaide
University of Oxford
University of Cambridge
University of Sheffield

Howard Florey, Baron Florey of Adelaide OM FRS FRCP[1] (24 September 1898 – 21 February 1968) was an Australian pharmacologist and pathologist who shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Sir Ernst Boris Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his role in the making of penicillin. Although Fleming received most of the credit for the discovery of penicillin, it was really Florey who carried out the first ever clinical trials in 1941 of penicillin at the Radcliffe Infirmary in Oxford on the first patient, a Postmaster from Wolvercote near Oxford. The patient started to recover but unfortunately subsequently died because Florey had not made enough penicillin.

Florey's discoveries are estimated to have saved over 82 million lives.[3] Florey is regarded by the Australian scientific and medical community as one of its greatest scientists. Sir Robert Menzies, Australia's longest-serving Prime Minister, said, "In terms of world well-being, Florey was the most important man ever born in Australia".[4] [5][6][7][8][9][10][11]

Biography

Howard Florey was the youngest of 8 children. His father, John Florey, was an English immigrant, and his mother Bertha Mary Florey was a third generation Australian.[12] He was born in South Australia, in 1898. He was educated at Kyre College Preparatory School (Now Scotch College) and then St Peter's College, Adelaide, where he was a brilliant academic and junior sportsman. He studied medicine at the University of Adelaide from 1917 to 1921. At the university, he met Ethel Reed, another medical student, who became both his wife and his research colleague. A Rhodes Scholar, he continued his studies at Magdalen College, Oxford, receiving the degrees of BA and MA. In 1926, he was elected to a fellowship at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, and a year later he received the degree of PhD from the University of Cambridge.

Flasks used in the cultivation of penicillin mould for large-scale production. One of the first flasks (centre) made using a biscuit tin. Ceramic flasks (rear) were used in production of penicillin. (Historical Collections, National Museum of Health and Medicine, M-722.10002, M-722.10003 and M-722.10227)

After periods in the United States and at Cambridge, he was appointed to the Joseph Hunter Chair of Pathology at the University of Sheffield in 1931. In 1935 he returned to Oxford, as Professor of Pathology and Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford, leading a team of researchers. In 1938, working with Ernst Boris Chain and Norman Heatley, he read Alexander Fleming's paper discussing the antibacterial effects of Penicillium notatum mould.

In 1941, they treated their first patient, Albert Alexander, who had been scratched by a rose thorn and was now suffering from severe facial infections. His whole face, eyes and scalp were swollen to the extent that he had had an eye removed to relieve some of the pain. Within a day of being given penicillin, he started recovering. However, the researchers did not have enough penicillin to help him to a full recovery, and he relapsed and died. Because of this experience, the researchers changed their focus to children, who did not need such large quantities of penicillin.

Florey's research team investigated the large-scale production of the mould and efficient extraction of the active ingredient, succeeding to the point where, by 1945, penicillin production was an industrial process for the Allies in World War II. However, Florey said that the project was originally driven by scientific interests, and that the medicinal discovery was a bonus:

People sometimes think that I and the others worked on penicillin because we were interested in suffering humanity. I don't think it ever crossed our minds about suffering humanity. This was an interesting scientific exercise, and because it was of some use in medicine is very gratifying, but this was not the reason that we started working on it.

— Howard Florey, [13]

Developing penicillin was a team effort, as these things tend to be

— Howard Florey, Baron Florey

Florey shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 with Ernst Boris Chain and Alexander Fleming. Fleming first observed the antibiotic properties of the mould that makes penicillin, but it was Chain and Florey who developed it into a useful treatment.[14]

On his religious views, Florey was an agnostic.[15]

He was openly concerned about the population explosion resulting from improving healthcare, and was a staunch believer in contraception.[13]

After the death of his wife Ethel, he married in 1967 his long-time colleague and research assistant Dr. Margaret Jennings (1904-1994). He died of a heart attack in 1968 and was honoured with a memorial service at Westminster Abbey, London.

Honours and awards

On 18 July 1944 Florey was appointed a Knight Bachelor.[16][17]

He was awarded the Lister Medal in 1945 for his contributions to surgical science.[2] The corresponding Lister Oration, given at the Royal College of Surgeons of England later that year, was titled "Use of Micro-organisms for Therapeutic Purposes".[18]

Florey was elected a member of the Royal Society in 1941 and became president in 1958.[1] In 1962, Florey became Provost of The Queen's College, Oxford. During his term as Provost, the college built a new accommodation block, named the Florey Building in his honour. The building was designed by the British architect Sir James Stirling.

On 4 February 1965 Sir Howard was appointed a life peer and became Baron Florey of Adelaide in the State of South Australia and Commonwealth of Australia and of Marston in the County of Oxford.[19] This was a higher honour than the knighthood awarded to penicillin's discoverer, Sir Alexander Fleming, and it recognised the monumental work Florey did in making penicillin available in sufficient quantities to save millions of lives in the war, despite Fleming's doubts that this was feasible. On 15 July 1965 Florey was appointed a Companion of The Order of Merit.[20]

Florey was Chancellor of the Australian National University from 1965 until his death in 1968. The lecture theater at the John Curtin School of Medical Research was named for him during his tenure at the ANU.

Posthumous honours

Australian $50 note in circulation 1973–95

Florey's portrait appeared on the Australian $50 note for 22 years (1973–95), and the suburb of Florey in the Australian Capital Territory is named after him. The Howard Florey Institute, located at the University of Melbourne, Victoria, and the largest lecture theatre in the University of Adelaide's medical school are also named after him. In 2006, the federal government of Australia renamed the Australian Student Prize, given to outstanding high-school leavers, the "Lord Florey Student Prize", in recognition of Florey.

The Florey Unit [21] of the Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading, Berkshire, is named after him.

The "Lord Florey Chair" in the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Sheffield is named in his honour.

References

  1. ^ a b c Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1098/rsbm.1971.0011, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1098/rsbm.1971.0011 instead.
  2. ^ a b Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1038/155601b0, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1038/155601b0 instead.
  3. ^ Woodward, Billy. "Howard Florey-Over 6 million Lives Saved." Scientists Greater Than Einstein Fresno: Quill Driver Books, 2009 ISBN 1-884956-87-4.
  4. ^ ONE DOLLAR SILVER PROOF 1998 Howard Florey. sterlingcurrency.com.au
  5. ^ Karl Grandin, ed. (1945). "Howard Florey Biography". Les Prix Nobel. The Nobel Foundation. Retrieved 24 July 2008. {{cite web}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  6. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1053/j.spid.2004.04.001, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1053/j.spid.2004.04.001 instead.
  7. ^ Fenner, Frank (1996). "Florey, Howard Walter (Baron Florey) (1898–1968)". Australian Dictionary of Biography. Vol. vol. 14. Melbourne University Press. pp. 188–190. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); |volume= has extra text (help); External link in |chapterurl= (help); Unknown parameter |chapterurl= ignored (|chapter-url= suggested) (help)
  8. ^ Florey, Howard (Lord) (1898–1968) National Library of Australia, Trove, People and Organisation record for Howard Walter Florey
  9. ^ Papers at the Royal Society.
  10. ^ Howard Walter Florey
  11. ^ Booknotes interview with Eric Lax on The Mold in Dr. Florey's Coat: The Story of the Penicillin Miracle, 2 May 2004.
  12. ^ V. Quirke, Howard Walter Florey
  13. ^ a b Bright Sparcs – Australasian Science article: Howard Florey
  14. ^ Judson, Horace Freeland (20 October 2003). "No Nobel Prize for Whining". The New York Times. NYTimes. Retrieved 23 June 2010.
  15. ^ Trevor Illtyd Williams (1984). Howard Florey, Penicillin and After. Oxford University Press. p. 363. ISBN 978-0-19-858173-4. As an agnostic, the chapel services meant nothing to Florey but, unlike some contemporary scientists, he was not aggressive in his disbelief.
  16. ^ "No. 36620". The London Gazette. 21 July 1944.
  17. ^ The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1945. nobelprize.org
  18. ^ Attention: This template ({{cite doi}}) is deprecated. To cite the publication identified by doi:10.1136/bmj.2.4427.635, please use {{cite journal}} (if it was published in a bona fide academic journal, otherwise {{cite report}} with |doi=10.1136/bmj.2.4427.635 instead.
  19. ^ "No. 43571". The London Gazette. 9 February 1965.
  20. ^ "No. 43713". The London Gazette. 16 July 1965.
  21. ^ Sexual Health Department. royalberkshire.nhs.uk


Template:Persondata

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Howard_Florey&oldid=601522486"