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| The Nobel Prize | |
| Over the time that the Nobel Prize has been awarded for physiology and medicine animal experiments have been an integral part of the research activities which have led to the advancement of knowledge which is recognised by these awards.
For example, the 1932 award to Sherrington and Adrian for their work on the functions of neurons was based on studies involving the use of dogs and cats. Subsequent awards in the neurosciences, such as that in 1963 to Eccles, Hogkin and Huxley and in 1970 to Katz, von Euler and Axelrod also involved the use of animals. Similarly, awards which have recognised developments in immunology, including that to Bordet in 1919, to Burnet and Medawar in 1960 and to Doherty and Zinkernagel in 1996 have involved animal experiments. |
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The contribution of animal experiments was acknowledged in the citation of the Nobel Committee when Fleming, Chain and Florey were awarded the prize in 1945 for the discovery of the ‘curative effects of penicillin in bacterial infection’.
Fleming discovered in 1929 that penicillin was able to dissolve staphylococcus colonies on an agar plate. He was to later reminisce -” Penicillin happened ....it came out of the blue” Fleming followed his observation to the point of trying to purify penicillin and also succeeded in showing that it was not poisonous when injected into an animal model. |
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However, as the Nobel Committee noted, the clinical significance of penicillin would not have been realised if Florey and his colleagues had not cultivated the mould and produced sufficient amounts of the material to test its efficacy and toxicity. The crucial experiments involved injecting mice with fatal doses of streptococcus - 90% of the animals treated with penicillin recovered, whereas all the untreated control animals died. Given the background of animal experimentation, Florey and his colleagues were ready to try penicillin for the first time in a human. Six patients with severe sepsis were selected for treatment; all had a favourable response, although two suffered a relapse after the use of penicillin was discontinued. The major limitation to the clinical use of penicillin was the availability of adequate amounts of the substance. |
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Subsequently, through the efforts of Chain, penicillin was commercially produced and thus available for widespread therapeutic use with significant results. The graph on the right shows the death rate for women as a result of puerperal sepsis (childbirth fever) in the United Kingdom - the spectacular fall after 1943-44 is a result of the availability of penicillin. To date, four Australians have been awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine or Physiology -Fleming (1945), Burnet (1960), Eccles (1963) and Doherty (1996). To learn more about this award visit http://www.nobel.se |
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