| Authorised form of name | Abraham; Sir; Edward Penley (1913 - 1999); biochemist |
| Dates | 1913 - 1999 |
| Nationality | British |
| Place of birth | 47 South View Road, Shirley, Southampton, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of birth | 10 June 1913 |
| Place of death | Oxford, England, United Kingdom |
| Date of death | 09 May 1999 |
| DatesAndPlaces | Place of marraige: Bergen, Norway, Europe |
| Occupation | Biochemist |
| Research field | Chemistry |
| Biochemistry |
| Activity | Education:
King Edward VI School, Southampton (1924-1932); Queen's College, Oxford. MA, DPhil, HonDSc
Career:
Fellow of Lincoln College, Oxford (1948); Reader and later Professor of Chemical Pathology, Oxford University (retired 1980); Honorary Fellow of Lincoln College, of Queen's College, of Linacre College, and of Lady Margaret Hall, Oxford; Founder Member of Royal Society's President's Circle in 1996 founded to recognise lasting contributions of major benefactors. Established EPA Cephalosporin Fund; died following a stroke.
Honours:
CBE 1973; Kt 1980
Awards/Medals:
Scheele Award in 1975
Foreign Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences 1983
Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Exeter 1980
Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Oxford 1984
Honorary Doctorate of Science from the University of Strathclyde 1989 |
| Membership category | Fellow |
| Date of election | 20/03/1958 |
| Age at election | 44 |
| Proposer | Norman Wingate Pirie |
| John Warcup Cornforth |
| Richard Laurence Millington Synge |
| Dorothy Hodgkin |
| Arthur Herbert Cook |
| Ian Morris Heilbron |
| Alexander Robertus Todd |
| Rudolph A Peters |
| Joshua Harold Burn |
| Paul Fildes |
| Howard Walter Florey |
| Robert Robinson |
| RSActivity | Medals and prizes:
Royal Medal 1973; Mullard Medal 1980 |
| Relationships | Parents: Albert Penley Abraham, a customs and exciseofficer, and Maria Agnes Abraham, née Hearne, daughter of a jour-neyman carpenter.
Siblings: Mary Abraham (b. 1917).
Spouse: (m. 1 November 1939) Asbjørg Harung. |
| PublishedWorks | RCN 16444
RCN 16445
RCN R72214
RCN 51677
RCN R71537 |
| OtherInfo | Distinguished as an organic chemist and biochemist. He played a prominent part in the isolation of penicillin -1 and the determination of its chemical structure, and has recently discovered and characterised a penicillin of a new type. He was a co-discoverer of the enzyme penicillinase. Together with his colleagues he has isolated and studied numerous antibacterial substances from natural sources, and has thrown light on the structures and antibacterial activities of several families of new polypeptides, including the bacitracins and nisins.
His work has also helped to establish the structure of the coenzyme alloxazine-adenine dinucleotide and to elucidate the metabolism of trytophan in the body. |
| Royal Society Obituary or Memoir | Click to view (may be contained within a meeting notice, presidential address or list of death notices) |
| Image | 
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| Source | Biographical Memoirs, Vol 60 2014 pp 5-22 |
| Code | NA3381 |