Page 39 - Mediterraneo e dintorni - nr 15

ratorio. Sotto la guida del grande to ferito ottennero un risultato
patologo comprese un principio importante e continuarono con
fondamentale per la sua attivi- successo la ricerca di Fleming, fi-
tà scientifica, ossia l’importanza nanziati dai governi americano e
di sviluppare nel corpo umano britannico. Iniziò la produzione
un’immunità per guarirlo di massa del trattamento
dalle infezioni. Uno e alla fine della guer-
stesso principio ra c’era abbastanza
applicabile ad una penicillina da poter
infinità di casi. curare tutti i soldati
Nasceva l’immu- delle forze alleate.
nologia moder- Fleming, con mo-
na e la terapia a destia, accreditò
base di vaccini. Florey e Chain
Da allora tutte per aver preso Il maggiore medico Vincenzo Tiberio nato a
le ricerche nel la sua curiosi- Sepino (CB) il 1869 e morto a Napoli il 1915.
campo venne- tà da labora- Anticipò di 35 anni la scoperta della peni-
cillina ma la medicina ufficiale non ne colse
ro impostate torio e averla l’importanza
in questa dire- trasformata in
zione. Dopo la un medicinale ricercatore molisano, Vincenzo
prima scoperta pratico. Ven- Tiberio, aveva già scoperto l’anti-
Fleming conti- ne nominato biotico osservando delle muffe in
nuò le sue ricer- Penicillina cavaliere da re un pozzo d’acqua della sua dimo-
che per oltre dieci Giorgio VI, nel ra napoletana: è tutto scritto nel
anni. Allo scoppio 1944 e l’anno se- suo testo “Sugli estratti di alcune
della Seconda Guerra Mondiale guente, assieme a Chain e Flo- muffe” pubblicato negli Annali di
la necessità di farmaci per cura- rey, ottenne il Premio Nobel per Igiene Sperimentale.
re i soldati degli eserciti cresce- la Medicina. L’umanità gli deve La medicina ufficiale si mostrò di-
va esponenzialmente. Nel 1940 molto. Dobbiamo però onesta- sinteressata mentre altri studiosi,
due collaboratori di Fleming, mente ricordare - come spesso fra cui proprio Fleming, lessero
Howard Florey e Ernst Boris accade nell’ambito delle scoperte fortunatamente le conclusioni di
Chain, curando un poliziot- - che 35 anni prima di Fleming un Tiberio.

aLexaNder FLeMiNG called “penicillium” because of the shape pathology, he began his brilliant activity,
of a brush - produced a substance capable which as a simple student led Fleming to
e is one of the men to whom science of killing a variety of bacteria responsible become Wright’s personal bacteriologist
Hand humanity owe so much. His for many diseases, such as bronchitis, assistant, and to work alongside him in
fame is linked to the discovery of the first pneumonia and bronchopneumonia. The the laboratory. Under the guidance of the
antibiotic in history, the revolutionary pe- following year he published his findings great pathologist, he understood a funda-
nicillin, which saved the lives of millions in the Journal of Experimental Patholo- mental principle for his scientific activity,
of people around the world and which de- gy, but they were almost ignored. Over namely the importance of developing an
servedly earned him the Nobel Prize for the next decade he continued his experi- immunity in the human body to cure it of
medicine in 1945 for the “healing effects ments and discovered that the “miracu- infections. The same principle applies to a
in many infectious diseases “, effects pro- lous” substance had a positive effect in multitude of cases. Modern immunology
cured precisely from that” funny mold eliminating many bacteria and pathogens and vaccine-based therapy was born. Sin-
“. Alexander Fleming, a British physi- that contributed to scarlet fever, diphthe- ce then all research in the field was set in
cian, biologist and pharmacologist, born ria, meningitis and pneumonia. A real this direction. Humanity owes him much.
in 1881 in Darvel and died in London in and incredible revolution. He grew up But we must honestly remember - as often
1955, defined the discovery as “funny”: in financial difficulties on his family’s happens in the field of discoveries - that
That’s funny! He shared this exclamation Scottish farm, but managed to get what 35 years before Fleming, a researcher
with his colleague Pryce to signify the he needed to enroll in college. The future from Molise, Vincenzo Tiberio, had alre-
wonder of having found that some bacte- scientist emerged immediately with his ady discovered the antibiotic by observing
ria no longer reproduced if in the presence skills as a great observer and his scienti- mold in a well of water in his Neapolitan
of a precise fungal colony. The discovery fic spirit during his academic career and residence: it is all written in his text “On
happened by chance, on the return from was immediately chosen as an internal extracts of some molds” published in the
the summer holidays with the family, on student by Sir Almroth Wright, one of Annals of Experimental Hygiene. The of-
September 28, 1928, a date he wrote in his the major immunologists of the time. Ri- ficial medicine showed itself disinterested
writing. Our scientist cultivated mold in ght next to what was his master, a well-k- while other scholars, including Fleming,
a pure culture, discovering that this - later nown microbiologist and professor of fortunately read Tiberius’ conclusions.

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