The Penicillin (Group 4)

Alexander Fleming

Penicillin is the first and most used antibiotic, derived from mold. It’s a drug that kills bacteria and is used to treat infections. In 1928 Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming observed that the mold grown on a fluid medium, said substance was capable of killing many common bacteria that infected humans.

Sir Alexander Fleming was born In 1881 on Scotland. He was a bacteriologist, with a gist for original observation. He made history when he discovered penicillin. He studied medicine at Sts. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in 1901, and in 1908 he won the gold medal as top medical student at the University. 


First he wanted to become a surgeon, but after a temporary position in the laboratories of St. Mary’s Hospital he changed his mind. During World War I (1914-1918) he worked studying infections in a laboratory in France.

In 1921 he made his first major discovery: he had a cold and a drop of his nasal mocus fell onto a culture plate of bacteria. After a few weeks the bacteria had dissolved. This is how he discovered lysozyme, but it didn’t affect most pathogenic bacteria.

In 1928 he made his most famous discovery, the penicillin. He first thought that like Lysozyme it was an enzyme, but it was not: it was one of the first antibiotics to be discovered! Although he failed to stabilize and purify it, he pointed that penicillin had an incredible clinical potential. Penicillin didn’t came to use until World War II (1939-1945) at University of Oxford by the hands of Howard Florey,

In 1945 he received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine shared with Howard Florey. For the last decade of his life he acted as a world ambassador for medicine and science. Alexander Fleming died in London, England in 1955.

When he verified his invention, he changed the world forever!

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Alexander Fleming (Additional information)