Alfred Theodore MacConkey

Alfred Theodore MacConkey (1861-1931) was the British bacteriologist who developed MacConkey's agar, a selective medium that is used in the diagnosis of enteric pathogens.

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MacConkey, the son of a West Derby minister, studied medicine at Cambridge and Guy's Hospital. He initially went into private practice at Beckenham, Kent, but decided to specialize in bacteriology, joining the bacteriology department at Guy's Hospital in 1897. He became an assistant bacteriologist serving the Royal Commission on Sewage Disposal in Liverpool, where he developed the culture medium which bears his name, and later transferred to the Lister Institute. He retired in 1926 and died in 1931 at Brindley Heath, Surrey.