Oxford’s penicillin
Local history talks
|In and around Oxfordshire
Think penicillin is just thanks to Fleming? Think again! The drug we use today was developed by a group of scientists based in Oxford. Learn about the wartime struggles to make this life-saving antibiotic.
Time & Location
Local history talks
In and around Oxfordshire
About the event
When Alexander Fleming was awarded a Nobel Prize in 1945, he shared it with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain. Why? Because while Fleming first observed and named penicillin, it was Florey and Chain and a group of scientists working in Oxford who developed it into a viable drug. In this talk Curator Without Museum will tell the story of the life saving work carried out in the Dunn School, the trials and tribulations the scientists faced and the experiences of the first patients to be treated with penicillin.