Antibacterial research at Oxford
Abraham studied chemistry at Oxford, completed doctoral research and worked in biochemistry in Stockholm before joining Howard Florey’s Dunn School in 1940. He helped purify penicillin and, with Ernst Chain, identified penicillinase, an enzyme that destroys the antibiotic.
The structure of penicillin
Abraham proposed a structure containing a beta-lactam ring. Robert Robinson and other chemists initially opposed it; X-ray crystallographic work by Dorothy Crowfoot and her collaborators subsequently supported the beta-lactam structure. Purifying an active preparation and establishing its molecular structure were separate parts of the research.
Cephalosporins and research funds
During the 1950s Abraham and Guy Newton investigated cephalosporin C and established its chemical structure in 1959. Their work helped subsequent development of semisynthetic cephalosporins. Abraham directed most of his related royalty income into funds for medical, biological and chemical research. He became a Royal Society Fellow in 1958 and Oxford’s Professor of Chemical Pathology in 1964.