Fleming’s assistant was slovenly?—but in the final analysis, Penicillium is
a common mold that has been making its own special chemical as a
defense, likely for millions of years. How it got into that lab is not
important, but the fact that Fleming paused to consider its actions is
significant.
Correctly ascertaining that Penicillium was producing a substance that
inhibited bacterial encroachment, Fleming and his assistant, Stuart
Craddock, (initially) became obsessed with farming Penicillium and
harvesting the resultant “mold juice.” Fleming then tested this concentrate
on other bacterial samples and found that it was effective against
staphylococci and streptococci, finally settling on the name “penicillin” as
the name of the substance that would make him world famous. In March
1929, Fleming published an article titled, “On the Antibacterial Action of
Cultures of a Penicillium, with Special Reference to Their Use in the
Isolation of B. Influenzae.” This predates, by several years, the German
discovery of sulfanilamides, but Fleming and his team lost out on the
designation as providers of the first antibiotic because they could never
adequately cultivate the finicky mold in sufficient quantities to make it
clinically significant.
In fact, Penicillium was so persnickety that Fleming gave up. It is
confusing today to reconcile Fleming’s abdication on mastering the
development of (arguably) the most significant drug ever discovered, but
the lack of sophisticated research tools, lab space, manpower, and most
important, intense drive to corral the fungus meant that it would be up to
another team, more than a decade later, to harness the power of
Penicillium. Amazingly, Alexander Fleming walked away from
Penicillium and never published on it again.
Eight years passed after Alexander Fleming’s publication with no
success, by Fleming or any other researcher, in cultivating Penicillium and
producing penicillin. While several scientists had been inspired by
Fleming’s 1929 article, none could overcome the same technical
challenges in understanding its actions, including George Dreyer of the
Oxford University Dunn School of Pathology. “The Dunn” had been
founded in 1922 with a £100,000 gift from Sir William Dunn, a Scottish
merchant banker and politician who had made a fortune in South Africa.
The institution would become world famous for disease process and
marcin
(Marcin)
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