DR6 100% Cotton Unisex Lab Coat

The DR6 Unisex Lab Coat takes its inspiration from The Royal Society Lab Coat, the UK’s national academy of science, where Sir Alexander Fleming was elected fellow in 1943. The Scottish-born biologist, is revered for defining new horizons for modern antibiotics with his discoveries of enzyme lysozyme in 1921, and the antibiotic substance penicillin in 1928. In November 1921, Fleming unintentionally discovered lysozyme, a mildly antiseptic enzyme present in body fluids. While nursing a cold, a drop of mucus dripped from his nose onto a culture of bacteria. Believing this may have some kind of effect on bacterial growth, he mixed it in. A few weeks later, he returned to look and the culture of bacteria and discovered the bacteria had been completely dissolved. Although turning out to have no effect on the most destructive bacteria, Fleming’s first great discovery contributed significantly to human immune system research. Fleming’s discovery of penicillin was just as unintentional. In September 1928, Fleming returned to his laboratory after a month away and noticed that a culture of Staphylococcus aureus he had accidentally left out had become contaminated with a mold (later identified as Penicillium notatum). He discovered that the colonies of staphylococci surrounding this mould had been destroyed. Believing he had found an enzyme more powerful than lysozyme, Fleming investigated further; discovering it wasn’t an enzyme at all, but one of the world's first antibiotics. Fleming recruited two young research to attempt to stabilize and purify penicillin. Unfortunately, they failed but Fleming pointed out that it had clinical potential in both topical and injectable forms. Howard Florey and his co-worker, Ernst Chain of the University of Oxford were quick to follow up on Fleming's discovery. Managing to isolate and purify penicillin, the antibiotic came into use during World War II, revolutionizing battlefield medicine and infection control. In 1944, Fleming was knighted and the following year; Fleming, Chain and Florey shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine