Penicillin was discovered in 1928 by the Scottish physician and microbiologist Alexander Fleming. He found that a mold called Penicillium notatum was capable of killing bacteria, which led to the identification of penicillin as the first true antibiotic. Fleming observed this by chance when he noticed that the mold growing on a petri dish prevented the growth of bacteria around it. He named the substance penicillin and published his findings in 1929. However, penicillin initially remained a laboratory curiosity because it was very difficult to isolate and purify. It was later that scientists Howard Florey, Ernst Chain, and their team at Oxford University successfully purified and developed penicillin into a practically usable antibiotic drug in the early 1940s. They also developed methods for mass production and distribution during World War II, which transformed penicillin from a laboratory curiosity into a life-saving medicine. Thus, while Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin, the development into an effective and widely available antibiotic involved further crucial contributions from Howard Florey, Ernst Chain, Norman Heatley, and others in the Oxford team.
