On September 28 1928, while working at his laboratory at St Mary’s Hospital, Alexander Fleming discovers penicillin by accident. He was investigating staphylococcus, a common type of bacteria that causes boils and can also cause disastrous infections in patients with weakened immune systems.
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After a 2 weeks vacation, he discovered that many of his culture dishes were contaminated with a fungus that had a positive anti-bacterial effect on multiple organisms providing the basic block for the start of modern antibiotics.
Fleming who eventually received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 did not realise the full significance of his discovery for at least another decade. The discovery of penicillin is one of the most important discoveries of the last century.
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