Where a medical revolution began
Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum
The discovery of penicillin revolutionised twentieth-century medicine. For the first time there was an effective drug available against many common infections which once were life-threatening or had long-term consequences but can now be quickly cleared up with a simple antibiotic.
No bigger than an office
At the Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum, it is possible to see Fleming's laboratory recreated as it was on 3 September 1928 when a mysterious mould contaminated a culture plate of bacteria. Ever observant Fleming noticed that this mould had produced something which seemed to dissolve the bacteria. He had discovered penicillin.
An exhibition and a video tell the story of how Fleming then attempted to purify penicillin so it could be used to treat patients, but failed. It was left to Howard Florey and Ernst Chain of the University of Oxford to develop a life saving drug from Fleming's chance discovery.
Submitted by: Andrew Hunt, 16 January 2007
