Edward Abraham

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Sir Edward Penley Abraham , CBE , (born June 10, 1913 in Southampton , England , † May 9, 1999 in Oxford , England) was a British biochemist who worked on the development of penicillin with Ernst Chain and Howard Florey . Later he was instrumental in the development of the antibiotic cephalosporins .

Abraham went to school in Southampton and studied chemistry at Oxford University (Queen's College), where he also received his doctorate. He then went to the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology in Oxford. He worked for Howard Florey in penicillin research, where he was primarily involved in the purification process and the determination of the chemical structure. Florey made him one of the three Penicillin Research Fellows at Lincoln College in Oxford in 1948 , which he remained until his retirement in 1980. After his involvement in the development of penicillin, he and Guy Newton investigated a substance (cephalosporin C) from a sample from Sardinia (a sewer pipe that drained into the sea) that Giuseppe Brotzu had sent in , who had also discovered the antibacterial effect. This enabled penicillin-resistant bacteria to be killed. Glaxo brought a corresponding antibiotic onto the market in 1964 (as Ceporin).

In contrast to Florey and the penicillin, he was able to apply for a patent on cephalosporin. With much of his fortune, which he received from patents, he financed the Edward Abraham Fund at the University of Oxford and the Cephalosporin Fund at Lincoln College.

Abraham was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1958 and was made a Knight Bachelor ("Sir") in 1980 . In 1975 Abraham received the Scheele Prize and he received the Royal Medal . In 1983 he was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences . A research building at Lincoln College in Oxford is named after him. In 1973 he became CBE .

Web links

literature

  • David S. Jones, John H. Jones: Sir Edward Penley Abraham CBE. June 10, 1913 - May 9, 1999 . In: Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society . tape 60 , 2014, p. 5–22 , doi : 10.1098 / rsbm.2014.0002 .
personal data
SURNAME Abraham, Edward
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Abraham, Edward Penley (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION English biochemist
DATE OF BIRTH June 10, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Southampton , England
DATE OF DEATH May 9, 1999
Place of death Oxford , England