History of antibiotics

Before antibiotics were discovered even a small infection could be fatal.

In 1928, Dr. Alexander Fleming, returned from a summer vacation in Scotland to find a messy lab bench. Upon examining some colonies of Staphylococcus aureus, Dr. Fleming noted that a mold called Penicillium notatum had contaminated his Petri dishes. Instead of just discarding the cultures, Fleming examined the bacteria and found that the mold prevented the normal growth of the staphylococci.

His finding revolutionized medicine. The mold produced some compound that not only inhibited the bacterial growth, more importantly, it could be harnessed to cure bacterial infections.

Since Fleming, we have discovered many different types of antibiotic compounds. Their widespread use, however, has led to rising levels of antibiotic resistance genes.