Alexander Fleming
In a monthly column for PBS NewsHour, Dr. Howard Markel revisits moments that changed the course of modern medicine on their anniversaries, like the development of penicillin on Sept. 28, 1928. Above: Jean-Claude Fide is treated with penicillin by his mother in 1948. Photo by Bert Hardy/Picture Post. Penicillin is one of the earliest discovered and widely used antibiotic agents, derived from the Penicillium mold. Antibiotics are natural substances that are released by bacteria and fungi into the their environment, as a means of inhibiting other organisms-it is chemical warfare on a microscopic scale. Uses. Penicillium notatum and penicillium chrysogenum are used to make penicillin. In fact, it is sometimes referred to as medicinal mold. Other varieties, such as penicillium roqueforti are used to ripen cheese, although it can also cause mold in grain crops. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin from mold that contaminated a petri dish of Staphylococcus bacteria. Researchers at Oxford University experimented with the new mold that Alexander Fleming had discovered. Penicillin was actually discovered by mistake. Though Fleming discovered penicillin, it took Florey and Chain to make it a usable product. Though both Fleming and Florey were knighted in 1944 and all three of them (Fleming, Florey and Chain) were awarded the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, Fleming is still credited for discovering penicillin. Penicillin was re-discovered by bacteriologist Alexander Fleming working at St. Mary's Hospital in London in 1928. He observed that a plate culture of Staphylococcus had been contaminated by a blue-green mold and that colonies of bacteria adjacent to the mold were being dissolved. Alexander Fleming, a Scottish bacteriologist in London, discovered penicillin by mistake when he was trying to study Staphylococcus bacteria in 1928. He was running experiments with the bacteria in his laboratory at London's St. Mary's Hospital, and set a laboratory dish containing the bacteria near an open window. Many school children can recite the basics. Penicillin was discovered in London in September of 1928. As the story goes, Dr. Alexander Fleming, the bacteriologist on duty at St. Mary’s Hospital, returned from a summer vacation in Scotland to find a messy lab bench and a good deal more.
http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/the-real-story-behind-the-worlds-first-antibiotic/ http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/Penicillin.htm http://www.cmsynergy.com/Mold/penicillium.htm http://www.wisegeek.org/how-was-penicillin-discovered-and-developed.htm http://history1900s.about.com/od/medicaladvancesissues/a/penicillin.htm http://inventors.about.com/od/pstartinventions/a/Penicillin.htm http://www.wisegeek.org/how-was-penicillin-discovered-and-developed.htm http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/the-real-story-behind-the-worlds-first-antibiotic/
who discovered medicinal uses of penicillium