Fleming, Florey and Chain's development of penicillin

Question 1

Alexander Fleming

Answer 1

A british doctor working in St Mary’s Hospital in London. He noticed that a mould was growing on one of his petri dishes and had killed off the bacteria in it. He published his findings.
When he tried this in humans, he discovered that penicillin was ineffective when mixed with blood, so did not pursue his research any further.

Question 2

Florey and Chain

Answer 2

Florey was a pathologist; Chain was a biochemist.
They tried using penicillin on mice and a policeman, and the results were promising.
The problem was the mass production of penicillin, since the active ingredient that killed bacteria was 1/2mil in the mould.

Question 3

Mass production of penicillin

Answer 3

Florey approached British pharmaceutical companies, but they were busy with the ongoing war.
Florey then went to US pharmaceutical companies - they agreed to begin penicillin production in beer vats. After the effectiveness of penicillin was shown, British pharmaceutical companies also started producing it. By D-Day, there was enough penicillin to treat all of the Allied casualties.

Question 4

Factors enabling the development of penicillin

Answer 4

Institutions - US government agreed to fund Florey’s research.
Technology - development of mass producing and storing penicillin.
Attitudes on society - ??
Science - current penicillin only acted against one bacteria; scientists tried to find different strains of penicillin that attack other bacteria.
Individuals - Florey, Chain and Fleming were most important in the development of penicillin.

Question 5

Use of penicillin

Answer 5

Used to prevent infection. Other scientists began their search for other moulds that could fight bacterial infections. After the first strains of penicillin-resistant bacteria began appearing, pharmaceuticals tried to find other antibiotics to kill them.