Editing Howard Florey (section)

=== University of Oxford ===
Despite his success in revitalising the pathology department at Sheffield, Florey had grander ambitions than following the example of Douglas and dying in office. An opportunity arose with the death of [[Georges Dreyer]] on 17 August 1934, the holder of the chair of pathology in the [[Sir William Dunn School of Pathology]] at Oxford. Dreyer had overseen the construction of a palatial new laboratory, but by 1934 it had attracted few students and researchers. While Florey had reservations about leaving Sheffield for Guy's, he had none about Oxford.<ref>{{Cite journal |title=Georges Dreyer, C.B.E., M.D., F.R.S. |journal=[[British Medical Journal]] |issn=0959-8138 |volume=2 |page=376 |doi=10.1136/bmj.2.3842.376-a |date= 25 August 1934 |s2cid=45000548 }}</ref>{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|pp=226-233}} The electoral board met on 22 January 1935, and Florey was appointed Professor of Pathology and Fellow of [[Lincoln College, Oxford]], which controlled the chair, effective 1 May 1935. The chair came with an annual salary of £1,700 ({{Inflation|UK|1,700|1935|fmt=eq|r=-3|cursign=£}}).{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|pp=234–239}}{{sfn|Williams|1984|pp=42–43}} The school's budget was  £3,432 a year ({{Inflation|UK|3,432|1935|fmt=eq|r=-3|cursign=£}}) for all equipment and salaries except Florey's. He enforced strict economy measures such as forbidding the use of the [[elevator|lift]], which saved £25 a year.{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|p=243}}

[[File:Sir William Dunn School of Pathology.jpg|thumb|left|The [[Sir William Dunn School of Pathology]] in Oxford]]
While the building could accommodate a staff of thirty researchers, twenty-five technicians and forty to fifty students, there was only a fraction of that number, and morale was low. Florey retained [[Jean Orr-Ewing]] and Margaret Campbell-Renton, who had been working with Dreyer, and brought Kent with him. Pullinger joined them soon after as demonstrator of pathology.{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|pp=240–243}} Florey and Pullinger restructured the pathology course.{{sfn|Williams|1984|pp=47–48}} He hired [[Margaret Jennings (scientist)|Margaret Jennings]] as a gastroenterologist in October 1936,{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|pp=240–243}} and she worked with him on his studies of mucus secretion.{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|pp=240–243}} She became Florey's mistress in 1940; their affair was a poorly-kept secret.{{sfn|Lax|2015|pp=128–130}} He appointed P. J. Smart as the office administrator, and she remained in the role until she retired in 1976.{{sfn|Williams|1984|pp=47–48}} He attracted Rhodes Scholars such as Australian [[Brian Gilmore Maegraith|Brian Maegraith]] and Americans [[Robert H. Ebert]] and Leslie Epstein to the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology;{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|pp=261–263}}{{sfn|Williams|1984|p=55}} other doctoral students included [[Peter Medawar]], Gordon Sanders and [[Jean Medawar|Jean Taylor]].{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|p=266}}

[[Arthur Duncan Gardner]] headed the MRC's Standards Laboratory, which was located on the premises, and Gardner expected that his unit would have to move out, but Florey moved to keep him, as he needed a good bacteriologist.{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|pp=240–243}} He arranged for Gardner to become head of his bacteriological section, with the title of reader of bacteriology in 1936. The Standards Laboratory eventually moved to the MRC's laboratories at [[Colindale]], but not until 1946.{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|p=260}}

Florey also wanted a biochemist on his staff, but this proved difficult. He acquired the services of E. A. H. Roberts with a £300 MRC grant in July 1935, and for the next two years Roberts worked with Florey and Maegraith on Florey's lysozyme project. Still, Florey wanted a biochemist on his own staff. He tried to get [[Hugh Macdonald Sinclair]], but Sinclair declined the offer. [[Norman Pirie]] asked Florey if he could assume the role, but when Florey approached Sir [[Frederick Gowland Hopkins]], Pirie's boss, Hopkins refused to release Pirie. He tempered this refusal by recommending [[Ernst Boris Chain]], one of many Jewish refugees from [[Nazi Germany]] who had found sanctuary in the UK. Chain had recently completed his PhD thesis under Hopkins's supervision. He gratefully accepted Florey's offer of an appointment although it was initially for one year only, and with an annual salary of £200 ({{Inflation|UK|200|1935|fmt=eq|r=-3|cursign=£}}).{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|pp=252–257}}{{sfn|Williams|1984|pp=52–53}} In turn, Chain felt that he needed a collaborator, and he had one in mind: [[Norman Heatley]], who was finishing his PhD in Hopkins's department. Heatley was happy to come, and Florey was able to arrange for the MRC to fund the position.{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|p=274}}

[[File:Penicillin Past, Present and Future- the Development and Production of Penicillin, England, 1944 D17803.jpg|thumb|right|upright|Florey in his office in 1944]]
In 1936, Florey received a letter from Hilda stating that their mother Bertha had terminal cancer, so he arranged to travel to Australia with Ethel, Paquita and Charles during the summer break. They travelled on the {{SS|Orsova|1908|6}} to Melbourne, where they were met by Bertha, Charlotte, Hilda, Valetta and Hilda's daughter [[Joan Gardner (microbiologist)|Joan Gardner]]. In addition to spending time with his family, he visited [[Peter MacCallum]] at his laboratory. MacCallum introduced Florey to [[Roy Wright (physiologist)|Roy Douglas (Pansy) Wright]], an experimental physiologist, and they arranged for Wright to come to Oxford the following year to assist Florey and Jennings with their work on mucus secretion. Florey then joined Ethel and the children in Adelaide. The family returned to Oxford in October. Bertha died on 27 November.{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|pp=268–271}}

Henceforth, Florey would lead an interdisciplinary team in an attack on a particular problem. Each member of the team tackled a particular aspect in their own way, with simultaneous research along different lines building up a complete picture. This was a manner of collaboration that was practically unknown in the UK at the time. However, the team members, including Florey, all worked on multiple projects at the same time. Florey was strict with his own collaborators, but gave considerable latitude to those working on other aspects of a project. He did not hold team meetings, although he encouraged team members to discuss issues with himself and each other, and he dropped by each laboratory nearly every day to view progress and provide suggestions.{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|pp=266–267, 274–275, 305}}

The first such project was an investigation of [[lymphocytes]]. Florey developed a detailed project plan and deployed eight graduate researchers on it, including Sanders, Medawar and Taylor. Florey performed delicate surgery on rabbits to examine the effects of lymphocyte deprivation. The project, not completed for many years, resulted in several papers and advances in the understanding of the [[immune system]].{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|pp=266–267, 274–275, 305}}

Florey continued with his lysozyme project. Although the MRC had agreed to pay Roberts's salary, it baulked at providing money for a piece of apparatus that he required. Florey then turned to the Rockefeller Foundation for assistance, and was provided with US$1,250 (about £320)({{Inflation|US|1250|1936|fmt=eq|r=-3}}). Florey and Maegraith harvested lysozyme from animals, and Roberts was able to purify it. [[Edward Abraham]] then managed to [[crystallization|crystallize]] it in 1937. Chain and Epstein then studied it and determined that it was a [[:wikt:polysaccharidase|polysaccharidase]] and, with Gardner's help, were able to determine its structure, and how it acted on [[polysaccharide]]s.{{sfn|Macfarlane|1979|pp=276–278}}<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Epstein |first1=L. A. |last2= Chain |first2=E. |author-link=Ernst Chain |title=Some Observations on the Preparation and Properties of the Substrate of Lysozyme |journal=British Journal of Experimental Pathology |issn=0958-4625 |volume=21 |issue=6 |pages=339–355 |date=December 1940 |pmc=2065383 }}</ref> The lysozyme research was successful, but while it was lethal to [[micrococcus|micrococci]], these bacteria are not usually [[pathogenic bacteria|pathogenic]], and were of little concern to medicine.{{sfn|Williams|1984|pp=60–62}}