Who Is Penicillin?

For the first time, doctors had a way to treat infections and miraculously save lives. Prior to the discovery of penicillin, patients often died from trivial injuries or infections. Today in the United States, deaths by infectious baterial diseases are one-twentieth what they were in the 1900s. Prior to penicillin, physicians had little ability to help patients suffering from infections. They could only watch, wait, and hope a patient's immune system would be strong enough to fight it off.

Alexander fleming was born in Lochfield Scotland in 1881, the son of a pig farmer. He was the seventh of eight children. He was a shy man but inspired many by his future work. He received a wonderful education and was able to attend the University

In 1928, after returning to his lab following a two week vacation, Fleming encountered the place in its usual disarray. He had an inoculated a number of petri dishes with staphylococci prior to leaving but hadn't placed them in an incubator because he knew that the staph would sufficiently multiply over his vacation. Little did he know that penicillium mold grows well at room temperature. Upon his return, hw found many of his culture plates contaminated with fungus. He immediately began preparing to clean them when a former member of his lab came to visit that day. He some of the cultures to show his visitor and noticed the inhibition zone around the fungus. Although he was not very knowledgeable about fungi, he knew that the mold in his dish was a species of penicillin. This accidental circumstance under Fleming's observation made sense in light of his research background. It was obvious to Fleming that penicillin was much more powerful than Lysozymes because his crude extracts could be diluted 1000 times and still be effective in killing

It was a crucial moment as his ideas reached a large audience. It would be ten years later that other scientists would begin to use penicillin to treat clinical disease. In come Dr. Howard Florey and Dr. Ernst Chain. They assembled a team, funding was obtained, and research began. Chain discovered that penicillin was not an enzyme, but a molecule. This meant that it could pass through the body and fight infections wherever they were. The team was ecstatic about their discovery and knew that penicillin had the potential to save millions of lives. Fleming and Florey were knighted in 1944. Chain was knighted in 1965. The Nobel Prize in Physiology of Medicine was awarded to all three in