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Have you ever made a mistake that revolutionised an entire scientific field and altered the longevity of the human race? Yeah, me neither.
But Scottish physician and microbiologist Dr Alexander Fleming did when he discovered penicillin.
Credit: Public Domain
IN A RUSH
Back in 1928, Dr Fleming was a bacterial researcher at St Mary’s Hospital in London.
He was studying the Staphylococcus aureus bacteria, which causes staph infections.
In August, Fleming headed off on a 2-week family holiday to Suffolk.
Likely due to excitement about his trip, he neglected to clean up his lab and left an uncovered Petri dish of Staphylococcus by the window.
A SURPRISING DISCOVERY
When he returned in early September, Fleming found mould growing in the exposed Staphylococcus dish.
He realised the mould – which he later identified as Penicillium notatum – was producing a “juice” that prevented the growth of the staph bacteria.
Intrigued, Fleming repeated the experiment later that month.
“When I woke up just after dawn on September 28, 1928, I certainly didn’t plan to revolutionise all medicine by discovering the world’s first antibiotic, or bacteria killer. But I guess that’s exactly what I did,” Fleming later said.
Credit: Science Museum London. CC BY SA 4.0
A ‘WONDER DRUG’
That accidental discovery led to perhaps the greatest medical advancement of the 20th century.
Not only did the Penicillium mould prevent the growth of bacteria, Fleming realised it could be used to treat infectious disease.
Because Fleming didn’t have the skills required to synthesise a medicine from the mould, the task of refining penicillin – as it would later be named – fell to an Oxford University laboratory group led by Dr Howard Florey.
Penicillin was first used to save the life of Harry Lambert from an otherwise fatal nervous system infection in 1942.
Penicillin has saved an estimated 500 million lives since its discovery by providing doctors with a way to fight bacterial infections.
Credit: Public Domain
A PROFOUND AND LASTING IMPACT
Penicillin isn’t the first or the only medicine to be synthesised from naturally occurring sources. But it has likely had the greatest impact.
Despite how remarkably effective penicillin is, it’s not infallible. Diseases are constantly evolving to fight the medicine used to treat them.
UWA researchers are studying bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics like penicillin and searching for medicine to update and complement existing treatments.
Penicillin marked a pivotal turning point for medicine, with antibiotics providing the average human with 23 extra years of life.
And to think it all started with a bit of mess.
