Alexander Fleming Discovers Penicillin

Today on The Daily Dose, Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin. Perhaps one of the most significant scientific discoveries in modern medicine, in 1928, Scottish-born physician and scientist Alexander Fleming began a series of experiments involving common Staphylococcal bacteria. When an uncovered Petri dish sitting near an open window became contaminated with mold spores, Fleming noted that the Staphylococcus clusters in direct proximity to the mold colonies were dying, as evidenced by the dissolving and clearing of the surrounding agar gel. Fleming went on to identify the mold as a member of the penicillium genus, further discovering that his accidental mold contaminant was extremely effective against all gram-positive pathogens, which were known to be responsible for diseases such as yellow fever, pneumonia, gonorrhea, meningitis, and diphtheria. He further discerned that it was not the mold itself that did the killing, but some juice the mold produced that had killed the surrounding bacteria. When I woke up just after sunrise on September 28, 1928, he would later recall, I certainly didn't plan to revolutionize all medicine by discovering the world's first antibiotic or a bacteria killer. But I suppose that's exactly what I did. Although Fleming published his discovery of penicillin in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology in 1929, the scientific community greeted his work with little enthusiasm. While Fleming had difficulty isolating his mold juice, in 1940, scientists Howard Florey and Ernst Chain began mass-producing penicillin fortuitously near the start of World War II. Fleming would receive many awards for his discovery, including the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1945. And there you have it. Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin, today on The Daily Dose.