Sir Edward Abraham | |
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 Abraham at the Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford in 1939 | |
| Born | Edward Penley Abraham (1913-06-10)10 June 1913 |
| Died | 8 May 1999(1999-05-08) (aged 85) Oxford |
| Alma mater | The Queen's College, Oxford |
| Spouse | Asbjörg Abraham (née Harung) |
| Awards |
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| Scientific career | |
| Institutions | University of Oxford |
| Thesis | Some substituted peptides and Experiments with lysozyme (1938) |
| Doctoral advisor | Sir Robert Robinson |
| Doctoral students | |
Sir Edward Penley Abraham,CBE, FRS[3] (10 June 1913 – 8 May 1999) was an Englishbiochemist instrumental in the development of the firstantibioticspenicillin andcephalosporin.[4][5]
Abraham was born on 10 June 1913 at 47 South View Road,Shirley, Southampton. From 1924 Abraham attendedKing Edward VI School, Southampton, before achieving aFirst inChemistry atThe Queen's College, Oxford.[6]
Abraham completed hisDPhil at theUniversity of Oxford under the supervision ofSir Robert Robinson, during which he was the first to crystallise lysozyme,[1][7] an enzyme discovered by SirAlexander Fleming and shown to have antibacterial properties, and was later the first enzyme to have its structure solved usingX-ray crystallography, by LordDavid Phillips.[8]
In 1938 Abraham won aRockefeller Foundation travel fellowship and spent a year inStockholm at the Biokemiska Institut.[9]
He then moved back to Oxford and became part of a research team led by SirHoward Florey at theSir William Dunn School of Pathology, responsible for the development of penicillin and its medical applications. Abraham was specifically involved in the purification process and determination of itschemical structure. In 1940 Abraham discoveredpenicillinase as the cause of bacterial resistance to antibiotics such as penicillin.[10] In October 1943 Abraham and SirErnst Boris Chain proposed a novelbeta-lactam structure with a fused two ring system.[11][12] This proposal was confirmed in 1945 byDorothy Hodgkin using X-ray crystallography.[12][13] Florey formally recognised Abraham's work in 1948 by nominating him to be one of the first three "penicillin" research Fellows atLincoln College, Oxford.
Later that year samples of aCephalosporium acremonium fungus with antibacterial properties were received fromGiuseppe Brotzu.[14] Abraham andGuy Newton purified the antibiotics from this fungus and found one, cephalosporin C, was not degraded by penicillinase and hence able to cure infections from penicillin-resistant bacteria.[15][16] During a skiing holiday in 1958 Abraham conceived the structure of cephalosporin C,[17] which he then went on to establish with Newton,[18] and was confirmed by Dorothy Hodgkin through X-ray crystallography.[19] Abraham showed that modification of the 7-amino-cephalosporanic acid nucleus was able to increase the potency of this antibiotic[20][21] and registered a patent on the compound.[11] This resulted in the first commercially sold cephalosporin antibioticCefalotin sold byEli Lilly and Company. There are now five generations ofcephalosporins, of which some are among the few remaining antibiotics for the treatment ofMRSA.
In 1964 he became Professor of Chemical Pathology, and remained a Fellow of Lincoln until his retirement in 1980.[5]
Abraham was born at 47 South View Road,Shirley, Southampton.[11] His parents were Maria Agnes Abraham, née Hearne and Albert Penley Abraham, a customs and excise officer.
In 1938 he met Asbjörg Harung fromNorway whom he married inBergen the following year: she remained in Norway, trapped by the German invasion, before escaping to Sweden in 1942 when she was reunited with her husband.[22] They had a son Michael Erling Penley Abraham, born in Oxford in July 1943.[11][23]
Edward Abraham died in May 1999, in Oxford, following a stroke. He was survived by his wife, Asbjörg.[24]
Sir Edward and Lady Abraham lived at Badgers Wood, Bedwells Heath,Boars Hill, where part of the land,Abraham Wood is now managed by theOxford Preservation Trust.[25]
He was a noted biochemist, his work onantibiotics producing great clinical advances. His principal work was concerned with the development of penicillin, and also latercephalosporin, an antibiotic capable of destroying penicillin-resistantbacteria. These vital drugs are now used extensively in the treatment of various infections, includingpneumonia,bronchitis,septicaemia and infected surgical wounds.
Through the registration of the patent on cephalosporin, he was able to generate a regular income, which he devoted almost entirely to the establishment of two charitable trusts for the support of biomedical research, the Edward Penley Abraham Research Fund,[26] the E.P.A. Cephalosporin Fund[27] and The Guy Newton Research Fund.[28] As of 2016 the combined endowment of these charities is over £194 million. By the end of the twentieth century, the charitable funds had donated more than £30m to theUniversity of Oxford, mainly to the Dunn School of Pathology and to Lincoln College, along with other grants toThe Royal Society and King Edward VI School, Southampton. Four recentOxford buildings received funds from Abraham's trusts:
Funding from these trusts have also helped to establish two scholarship programmes for doctoral students at theUniversity of Oxford (the Oxford-E P Abraham Research Fund Graduate Scholarship and the Oxford-EPA Cephalosporin Graduate Scholarship).
Abraham Wood is a bluebell wood atBoars Hill donated to theOxford Preservation Trust in memory of Sir Edward and Lady Abraham.[33]
Abraham was the recipient of many awards over his lifetime:
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