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The story of penicillinAlexander Fleming was a scientist who studied bacteria. He was keen to find ways of killing them.

In 1928, he was growing lots of bacteria known as staphylococci on agar plates.

Alexander’s lab was rather untidy, and he sometimes left the lids off his plates, letting the air in.

Photo: Duncan Smith/Photodisc 72(NT)

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A common mould that might have grown happily on a slice of bread had landed on Fleming’s plates – a stroke of luck that has saved millions of lives.

Returning from a holiday, Alexander noticed that lots of his culture plates were mouldy.

Photo: Ann Fullick

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Fleming noticed that, although plenty of bacteria were growing on the agar, there was a clear ring around some of the mould.

Something had killed the bacteria. Straight away Fleming saw that this might be important. He even labelled and saved the plates!

Photo: Pfizer

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Fleming worked hard on his mould, which was called Penicillium notatum. He squeezed out some ‘mould juice’ which he called penicillin.

But he couldn’t get much penicillin from the mould. It wouldn’t keep – even in the fridge – and he couldn’t prove it would actually kill bacteria and make people better.

By 1934 Fleming gave up on penicillin and went on to do different work!

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Ronald Hare

After Fleming stopped work on penicillin, other people carried on the story. Ronald Hare, one of Fleming’s young assistants, found that Penicillium mould grows best at quite low temperatures.

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Dr Cecil PaineCecil Paine was another of Alexander Fleming’s pupils.

He made a penicillin extract and was the first person to try it out on a person.

A local miner got a stone in his eye and had a massive infection which was making him blind. Cecil washed the eye with his penicillin extract – and it got better.

Photo: Nancy Cohen/Photodisc 46 (NT)

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The baby was cured and its sight was saved!

Paine never published his work, but he told a new professor at the university, a man called Howard Florey.

Next, Cecil Paine treated a tiny baby with his penicillin wash. It had picked up an eye infection as it was born.

Photo: Ann Fullick

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Howard Florey and Ernst Chain worked at Oxford University. In 1938 they decided to do some work on penicillin using mice to try to get clear evidence that penicillin worked.

Norman Heatley was a key man in their team. He worked out a way of making enough penicillin to try it out – and he was the man who watched over the mice as the experiment went on.

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The mouse experiment

Eight mice were infected with bacteria which would kill them in 24 hours.

Four were given penicillin. The four treated mice stayed healthy – but the other four died!

Photo: Hart/Photodisc 50 (NT)

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Norman HeatleyA human being is about 3000 times heavier than a mouse – so a lot more penicillin was needed.

In 1940–1941, Norman Heatley developed some special pot vessels to grow more mould – and collect more penicillin. In just a few weeks, Norman made enough penicillin for Howard Florey to try it out on a fully grown man.

Photo of Norman Heatley by Mary Krinsky

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Albert Alexander was a 43-year-old policeman who was dying of a blood infection. Florey and Chain gave him penicillin for five days. Albert recovered well until the penicillin ran out.

Florey and Chain tried everything – they even collected spare penicillin from Albert’s urine but it was no good. The infection came back and Albert died.

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Florey and Chain collected more penicillin. They were determined to succeed.This time they tried their penicillin on a 15-year-old boy who had an infection after an operation. He was completely cured.

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By 1941, Europe was in the grip of the Second World War. Thousands of soldiers were dying from infected wounds and infectious disease.

Potentially, penicillin couldsave thousands of lives –but the scientists stillcouldn’t make enough of it.

Photo: Ann Fullick

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British laboratories and factories were busy withthe war effort.

Howard Florey hadcontacts in America,so the scientists tooktheir mould to theUnited States wheresome of the largechemical companieshelped them to makepenicillin on a big scale.

Photo: Pfizer

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Penicillium notatum is slow growing and produces little penicillin.

‘Mouldy Mary’

When Mary Hunt, a member of the US team, brought in a mouldy melon she found on a market stall it gave them a breakthrough – a new and better form of Penicillium! Photo: Ann Fullick

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Chain, Fleming and Floreyall got a Nobel prize fortheir work.

Photo: Pfizer

Sir Alexander Fleming openingPfizer’s new UK factory to make

penicillin in 1954Everyone thought the battle against bacteria had been won!

The number of people dying from diseases caused by bacteria in countries like Britain and America dropped dramatically.