Unsung heroes
Alexander Fleming is the scientist most people link to penicillin.
Howard Florey and Ernst Chain are the other two scientists who were
awarded Nobel prizes for their work on the development and manufacture
of this amazing drug. But they were not the only people who played a
part in the story of penicillin. There are many unsung heroes who for
one reason or another did not get the fame and attention - here are
some of their stories :
- Andre Gratia and Sara Dath saw a fungus growing in one of their
agar plates of Staphylococcus bacteria in the early 1920s. They noticed
the fungus had stopped the bacteria growing and identified it as a
Penicillium mould. They published a paper, but no notice was taken
of it and they didn't do any more research in this area, missing out
on one of the major discoveries of the century.
- When other doctors and scientists attempted to copy Fleming's work
they failed miserably - the mould simply wouldn't grow on the plates.
Dropping spores of Penicillium on to an agar plate teeming with staphylococcal
bacteria did not produce the expected effect; the bacteria were unaffected.
The puzzle solved,by Fleming's research assistant Ronald Hare. He
found that the key to the puzzle was temperature: Penicillium grows
best at 20oC, staphylococcal bacteria at 35oC.
Fleming, as we know, left his plates out in his lab. On the day when
the plate was contaminated, there followed an exceptionally cool period
lasting nine days. Thus the Penicillium grew well, the staphylococcal
bacteria hardly at all. Then the temperature rose and the bacteria
started growing. But by now there was sufficient penicillin present
to destroy the bacteria. When Fleming returned he saw the extraordinary
condition of the agar plate. Had he not forgotten to put the plate
in the incubator, had he not gone on holiday, had the weather not
turned and turned again, had a different mould landed on the plate,
the "miracle" would not have happened when it did. And for
fellow scientists to repeat the experiment, they needed to put their
plates in a cool environment initially followed by a warmer one!
- Dr Cecil Paine was a former student of Alexander Fleming. He read
Fleming's 1929 paper when he was working at the University and Royal
Infirmary in Sheffield, and was inspired to try using penicillin in
the form of a very crude extract with some of his patients. He tried
treating infections of the hair follicles of the beard by covering
the skin with gauze soaked in penicillin extract - it didn't have
any effect!
However his next patient was a success story. A local miner had a
stone lodged in his eye. It was so infected he was to have the eye
removed. Paine washed the eye with his penicillin extract - and the
eye was saved. He then treated a baby with a serious eye infection
and again the penicillin defeated the infection and the baby's sight
was saved. But Paine never published his results, or even gave a public
lecture on his findings. He said he felt he had only used a crude
extract and had done little testing so it wasn't worthy of publication.
He took a different job and left penicillin behind him. However in
1932 he did discuss what he had dome with the newly arrived Professor
of Pathology - Howard Florey!
- J M Barnes worked with Chain in the early mice experiments on penicillin
because Florey was not interested in being involved.
- Mary Hunt was a lab worker in Peoria in 1943. It was she who brought
in a canteloupe melon infected with a 'pretty, golden mould' and discovered
Penicillium chrysogeum, a mould which gave about 200 times
as much penicillin as the original form.
The germ theory of disease
Finding out about Fleming
Florey, Chain and large-scale production
Accident or design?
Penicillin - the true story?
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