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Penicillin – the story of a
medicine
‘Millions of people all over
the world are alive and
well because penicillin –
and other antibiotics like
it – are so good at killing
bacteria.’
‘But even when a chemical that kills bacteria
had been discovered, it wasn’t easy to turn it
into a medicine for us to take…’
In 1928 the scientist Alexander
Fleming was growing lots of
bacteria on special plates covered in
jelly. The bacteria feed on the jelly
and grow to cover the whole plate.
One day Alexander noticed
that mould had grown on
some of his plates, as if
they were slices of bread!
This was a stroke of luck
which has saved millions of
lives.
Fleming noticed something. Although lots of bacteria were
growing on his plates, there was a clear ring in the jelly
around some of the spots of mould. Something had killed the
bacteria that was covering the jelly!
Fleming called the bacteriakilling chemical penicillin.
But he just couldn’t get
enough penicillin out of the
mould to use it. By 1934 he
gave up and went on to
something different!
Howard Florey and Ernst Chain were scientists working at
Oxford University. In 1938 they decided to look at penicillin.
They managed to get
enough penicillin to try it
out on mice infected with
bacteria. The mice which
were given penicillin got
better, but the other mice
died
Even Florey and Chain struggled to get enough penicillin to
treat people with. Their first patient started to get better – but
the penicillin ran out and he died.
Then they tried the new medicine on a 15 year old boy who
had an infection after an operation. He was completely cured.
By 1941 World War II was
raging.
Penicillin could save the lives of
thousands of wounded soldiers
– but the scientists just
couldn’t make enough of it.
In Britain all the factories
were busy with the war
effort.
But Howard Florey knew lots
of people in America, so the
scientists took their mould to
the United States.
Some of the big US chemical
companies helped them make
penicillin on a big scale.
‘Chain, Fleming and
Florey all got a Nobel
Prize for their work.’
‘And they deserved it
too. Without penicillin,
millions
more soldiers would
have died in the war –
and millions more
people afterwards -
from infectious
diseases.’
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