On this day 83 years ago, Dr. Alexander Flemming awoke to discover a fungus growing on a culture of staphylococci. The fungus was producing a bacteria-killing agent that Flemming recognized from the Penicillium genus.
It wasn't until 1929 that the name penicillin was officially coined. Up until that point, it was simply referred to as "mold juice."
Flemming conducted extensive tests and found that penicillin attacked the bacteria responsible for a number of illnesses, such as pneumonia, scarlet fever, meningitis and diphtheria. Problems quickly arose, however. The exact chemical agent was hard to isolate and even harder to produce. He continued working on it himself until 1940. Clinical tests were inconclusive in determining how long penicillin would survive inside the human body, and if it would kill a foreign agent before expiring.
The breakthrough came when chemists Edward Abraham and Ernest Chain discovered how to mass-produce a stabilized form of the agent, which they accomplished within the year. After Pearl Harbor was bombed, these methods were turned over to the US government. By D-Day, enough had been manufactured to treat every wounded Allied soldier.
During WWII, penicillin was credited with reducing injury and sickness-related fatalities by 15%
Flemming was awarded the Nobel Prize for his discovery in 1945. He died ten years later of a heart attack.
