Edward Abraham

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This article is about the biochemist. For the US Senator from Michigan, see Spencer Abraham.

Sir

Edward Abraham

CBE FRS
Abraham at the Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford in 1939
Born
Edward Penley Abraham

(1913-06-10)10 June 1913
Shirley, Southampton, England
Died8 May 1999(1999-05-08) (aged 85)
Alma materThe Queen's College, Oxford
SpouseAsbjörg Abraham (née Harung)
Awards
Scientific career
Institutions
Sir Robert Robinson
Doctoral students
Other notable studentsSir John Walker

Sir Edward Penley Abraham,

antibiotics penicillin and cephalosporin.[4][5]

Early life and education

Abraham was born on 10 June 1913 at 47 South View Road,

First in Chemistry at The Queen's College, Oxford.[6]

Abraham completed his

Sir Robert Robinson, during which he was the first to crystallise lysozyme,[2][7] an enzyme discovered by Sir Alexander Fleming and shown to have antibacterial properties, and was later the first enzyme to have its structure solved using X-ray crystallography, by Lord David Phillips.[8]

Research

See also: Discovery and development of cephalosporins and Penicillin

In 1938 Abraham won a Rockefeller Foundation travel fellowship and spent a year in Stockholm at the Biokemiska Institut.[9]

He then moved back to Oxford and became part of a research team led by Sir

Ernst Boris Chain proposed a novel beta-lactam structure with a fused two ring system.[11][12] This proposal was confirmed in 1945 by Dorothy 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 at Lincoln College, Oxford
.

Later that year samples of a Cephalosporium acremonium fungus with antibacterial properties were received from Giuseppe Brotzu.[14] Abraham and Guy 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 antibiotic Cefalotin sold by Eli Lilly and Company. There are now five generations of cephalosporins, of which some are among the few remaining antibiotics for the treatment of MRSA.

In 1964 he became Professor of Chemical Pathology, and remained a Fellow of Lincoln until his retirement in 1980.[5]

Personal life

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 from Norway whom he married in Bergen 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 the Oxford Preservation Trust.[25]

Legacy

He was a noted biochemist, his work on

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,

The Royal Society and King Edward VI School, Southampton. Four recent Oxford
buildings received funds from Abraham's trusts:

Funding from these trusts have also helped to establish two scholarship programmes for doctoral students at the University of Oxford (the Oxford-E P Abraham Research Fund Graduate Scholarship and the Oxford-EPA Cephalosporin Graduate Scholarship).

Abraham Wood is a bluebell wood at Boars Hill donated to the Oxford Preservation Trust in memory of Sir Edward and Lady Abraham.[33]

Awards

Abraham was the recipient of many awards over his lifetime:

References

  1. ^
    S2CID 71557916
    .
  2. ^
    doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/72230. Retrieved 9 May 2017. (Subscription or UK public library membership
    required.)
  3. ^ Walker, John (1969). Studies on naturally-occurring peptides (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford.[permanent dead link]
  4. ^ "Eccentric TV farmer". Herald Sun. 17 May 1999.
  5. ^ a b National Archives: Papers of Edward Penley Abraham
  6. ^ a b "Sir Edward Penley Abraham (1913–1999)". University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 4 February 2019. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  7. S2CID 4114004
    .
  8. S2CID 4186428
    .
  9. ^ Archives, The National. "The Discovery Service". discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  10. S2CID 4070796
    .
  11. ^
    S2CID 71557916
    .
  12. ^ a b Chain, Ernest (20 March 1946). "The chemical structure of the penicillins" (PDF). Nobel Prize. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  13. ISBN 9781400874910
    .
  14. ^ "Timeline | Sir William Dunn School of Pathology". University of Oxford. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  15. S2CID 4268517
    .
  16. ^ "Obituary: Sir Edward Abraham". The Independent. 13 May 1999. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  17. ^ Abraham, Edward (1990). "Reflections on the Development of the Penicillins And Cephalosporins". Sartoniana. 3: 016–035.
  18. PMID 13681080
    .
  19. PMID 13714852
    .
  20. PMID 13763020
    .
  21. PMID 13710694
    .
  22. S2CID 71557916.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link
    )
  23. ISSN 0362-4331
    . Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  24. ^ "Obituary of Sir Edward Abraham Biochemist who developed new antibiotics and gave 30 million pounds of the profits to Oxford University". The Daily Telegraph. 12 May 1999.
  25. ^ "Oxford Preservation Trust | Oxford's own national trust". www.oxfordpreservation.org.uk. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  26. ^ "Edward Penley Abraham Research Fund, registered charity no. 309659". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
  27. ^ "The E P A Cephalosporin Fund, registered charity no. 309698". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
  28. ^ "Charity Details". beta.charitycommission.gov.uk. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  29. ^ "Opening of EPA Building | Sir William Dunn School of Pathology". University of Oxford. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  30. ^ "Lincoln College Annexe (EPA Centre)". Oxford Rooms.
  31. ^ "Named Areas of College | Linacre College". University of Oxford. Archived from the original on 22 April 2017. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  32. ^ "Penicillin: the Oxford story | University of Oxford". University of Oxford. Retrieved 9 May 2017.
  33. ^ "Abraham Wood". Oxford Preservation Trust.
  34. ^ "Book of Members, 1780–2010: Chapter A" (PDF). American Academy of Arts and Sciences. Retrieved 20 March 2011.
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