330:, where various conventional treatments all failed, and his case was brought to Florey and Heatley's attention. Having previously tried penicillin only on mice, Heatley was concerned about the side effects large doses of penicillin might have. A patient in a terminal condition with nothing to lose was needed as a human volunteer, and Constable Alexander met this requirement. On 12 February 1941, Alexander was given an intravenous infusion of 160 mg (200 units) of penicillin. Within 24 hours, Alexander's temperature had dropped, his appetite had returned and the infection had begun to subside. However, owing to the instability of penicillin and the wartime restrictions placed on
365:. In July 1942, he returned to Oxford and was soon to learn why Moyer had become so secretive. When he published their research results, he omitted Heatley's name from the paper, despite an original contract which stipulated that any publications should be jointly authored. Fifty years on, Heatley confessed that he was amused, rather than upset, by Moyer's duplicity. Later he was to learn that financial greed had led Moyer to claim all the credit for himself. To have acknowledged Heatley's part of the work would have made it difficult to apply for patents, as he did, with himself as sole inventor.
354:. Moyer suggested adding corn-steep liquor, a by-product of starch extraction, to the growth medium. With this and other subtle changes, such as using lactose in place of glucose, they were able to push up yields of penicillin to 20 units per millilitre. But their cooperation had become one-sided. Heatley noted, "Moyer had begun not telling me what he was doing."
334:, only a small quantity was available, and although Florey and colleagues extracted any remaining penicillin from Alexander's urine, they had run out by the fifth day and Alexander died a month later. Florey and his team thereafter decided to work only on sick children, who did not need such large doses of penicillin, until their methods of production improved.
278:, they faced the problem of how to manufacture penicillin in sufficient quantities to be of use. Heatley, although the junior member of the team, possessed a natural gift for ingenuity and invention. It was he who suggested transferring the active ingredient of penicillin back into water by changing its acidity, thus purifying the penicillin.
289:
On returning home, he realised that in haste and darkness, he had put his underpants on back to front, and noted this in his diary too, adding "It really looks as if penicillin may be of practical importance." In order to conduct tests on human patients, even more of the drug had to be produced, and
285:"After supper with some friends, I returned to the lab and met the professor to give a final dose of penicillin to two of the mice. The 'controls' were looking very sick, but the two treated mice seemed very well. I stayed at the lab until 3:45 a.m., by which time all four control animals were dead."
306:. With the help of these, the Oxford laboratory became the first penicillin factory, and subsequent tests on humans proved the efficacy of the new treatment. Even so, it was very difficult to produce enough for sustained treatment.
433:
After
Heatley died in 2004, Oxford University established a Norman Heatley Postdoctoral Award for researchers showing excellent ingenuity and problem-solving skills. Heatley's papers are archived within the
767:(1990 Oxford: an Honorary Doctorate in Medicine, the first given to a non-medic in Oxford's 800-year history and, in Heatley's view, 'an enormous privilege, since I am not medically qualified')
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for their work in 1945, Heatley's contribution was not fully recognized for another 45 years. It was only in 1990 that he was awarded the unusual distinction of an
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by accident in 1928, but at that time believed it had little application. When Florey and his team recognised the potential of the discovery for combating
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243:, where he studied Natural Sciences, graduating in 1933. His doctoral research in Cambridge led to a PhD in 1936, and he then moved to the
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Florey returned to Oxford that
September, but Heatley stayed on in Peoria until December; then for the next six months, he worked at
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Church, Marston, on 15 January 2004. Heatley was survived by his wife, Mercy, and four children, Rose, Chris, Jonathan and Tamsin.
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again it was
Heatley who realised that the most effective vessel for this purpose was something like the porcelain
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in 1941 because they wanted to produce about one kilogram of pure penicillin, and persuaded a laboratory in
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381:"Without Fleming, no Chain or Florey; without Florey, no Heatley; without Heatley, no penicillin."
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203:. Heatley developed the back-extraction technique for efficiently purifying penicillin in bulk.
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350:, to develop larger-scale manufacturing of it. In Peoria, Heatley was assigned to work with
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496:"Obituary: Norman Heatley – Research biochemist who secured the development of penicillin"
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397:, the first given to a non-medic in Oxford's 800-year history. In 1978, he received an
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Heatley recorded these trials, carried out on eight mice in May 1940, in his diary:
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785:"Norman HEATLEY (1911–2004), Biochemist, key member of the Oxford penicillin team"
524:"Obituaries: Norman Heatley – Last survivor of the team that developed penicillin"
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223:, an experience which gave him a lifelong love of sailing. He attended school at
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Heatley died on 5 January 2004 at his home, 12 Oxford Road,
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Yet while
Fleming, Florey and Chain jointly received the
710:"Making Penicillin Possible: Norman Heatley Remembers"
622:"Making Penicillin Possible: Norman Heatley Remembers"
807:
779:
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314:In December 1940, a 43-year-old police constable,
298:. These were in short supply because the ongoing
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342:Eventually, Heatley and Florey travelled to the
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683:. Australian Academy of Science. Archived from
413:, near Oxford, which now bears a commemorative
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929:Officers of the Order of the British Empire
738:
337:
31:
815:"Heatley, Norman George, OBE (1911–2004)"
656:"Discovery and development of penicillin"
899:Fellows of St John's College, Cambridge
852:Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
585:
488:
894:Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
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553:
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549:
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884:People educated at Saint Felix School
746:Oxford Today: The University Magazine
636:from the original on 21 February 2007
557:
458:
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417:in his honour. He was cremated in a
889:People educated at Tonbridge School
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322:on his mouth and was succumbing to
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215:, and as a boy was an enthusiastic
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904:Fellows of Lincoln College, Oxford
421:coffin after a funeral service at
318:, was accidentally scratched by a
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940:
648:
611:
461:"Obituary: Norman George Heatley"
459:White, Pearce (7 February 2004).
195:. He was a member of the team of
741:"Without Heatley, no penicillin"
674:"Penicillin – the miracle mould"
326:. Alexander was admitted to the
251:and joined a team working under
909:20th-century British biologists
879:People from Woodbridge, Suffolk
789:Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Scheme
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183:January 1911 – 5
793:Oxfordshire Blue Plaques Board
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558:Evans, Ruth (8 January 2004).
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247:, where he became a fellow of
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187:January 2004) was an English
16:English biologist (1911–2004)
117:St John's College, Cambridge
7:
377:put it succinctly in 1998:
10:
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840:
681:Marvellous micro-organisms
560:"Obituary: Norman Heatley"
332:Howard Florey's Laboratory
739:Sidebottom, Eric (2004).
660:American Chemical Society
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199:scientists who developed
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914:20th-century biochemists
338:Illinois and New Jersey
219:of a small boat on the
103:Westbourne House School
847:Heatley, Norman George
383:
287:
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270:had first discovered
174:Norman George Heatley
597:. pp. 154–155.
245:University of Oxford
924:English biochemists
855:(restricted access)
823:Wellcome Collection
753:(3). Archived from
690:on 6 September 2006
436:Wellcome Collection
328:Radcliffe Infirmary
296:Radcliffe Infirmary
276:bacterial infection
213:Woodbridge, Suffolk
919:English biologists
630:Thomson Scientific
391:Honorary Doctorate
363:Rahway, New Jersey
263:Production problem
235:, then went on to
99:Saint Felix School
757:on 9 October 2006
604:978-0-525-53885-1
532:. 23 January 2004
395:Oxford University
393:of Medicine from
268:Alexander Fleming
237:St John's College
197:Oxford University
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162:Oxford University
134:Scientific career
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504:. 7 January 2004
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348:Peoria, Illinois
316:Albert Alexander
310:Trials on humans
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225:Westbourne House
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826:. Retrieved
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718:the original
714:ScienceWatch
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685:the original
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626:ScienceWatch
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565:The Guardian
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71:(2004-01-05)
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874:2004 deaths
869:1911 births
819:Collections
724:28 December
694:13 February
640:13 February
415:blue plaque
411:Old Marston
405:Final years
387:Nobel prize
369:Achievement
324:septicaemia
257:Ernst Chain
221:River Deben
85:Nationality
863:Categories
828:2 December
799:2 December
591:Extra Life
536:2 December
508:2 December
480:2 December
469:The Lancet
446:References
320:rose thorn
272:penicillin
229:Folkestone
207:Early life
201:penicillin
193:biochemist
127:Penicillin
54:Woodbridge
46:1911-01-10
501:The Times
419:cardboard
304:Potteries
241:Cambridge
189:biologist
95:Education
79:, England
60:, England
761:4 August
634:Archived
632:. 2007.
589:(2021).
571:4 August
841:Sources
662:. 1999.
292:bedpans
144:Biology
89:English
58:Suffolk
791:. UK:
601:
440:London
429:Legacy
217:sailor
185:
181:
140:Fields
77:Oxford
688:(PDF)
677:(PDF)
476:: 495
464:(PDF)
830:2023
801:2023
763:2006
726:2018
696:2007
642:2007
599:ISBN
573:2006
538:2023
510:2023
482:2023
191:and
66:Died
40:Born
474:363
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399:OBE
373:As
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179:(10
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Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Additional terms may apply.
