Sir John Scott Burdon-Sanderson born on December 21, 1828. He received his medical education at the University of Edinburgh and at the University of Paris. He became a Medical Officer of Health for Paddington in 1856 and subsequently a physician to the Middlesex Hospital and the Brompton Consumption hospitals. Between 1858-1866, he investigated diphtheria, cattle plague and cholera when they appeared in England. He was one of the forerunners of penicillin, observing its ability to inhibit the growth of bacteria before Alexander Fleming.

He was the first person chosen to be the Waynflete Chair of Physiology in Oxford in 1882. It was at this time that he became the focus of the antivivisectionist movement, who opposed his stance on animal experimentation. In 1895, he became Regius Professor of Medicine at Oxford, a post he held until his resignation in 1904. In 1899, he became the first Baronet of Banbury Road in the Parish of Saint Giles in in the City of Oxford. He died in Oxford on November 23rd, 1905.