Antibiotic Discovery - Royton and Crompton Academy

Key words:

Thursday, 26 March 2020

Antibiotic Discovery

Outcome 1 Outcome 2 Outcome 3

Give examples of painkillers and other medicines to treat symptoms

Learning Objective: To be able to explain how drugs were developed

Describe Fleming’s discovery and explain it’s importance

Evaluate the change in treatments over the years

Alexander Fleming Penicillinmicroorganisms Cultures

Key words:


Uses of plant poisons as medicinal drugs

• Quinine, produced by chichona trees- treats malaria.

• Aspirin, produced by willow trees- treats symptoms of disease, such as pain and fever

Key words:


Write down a list of everything you know about penicillin and who discovered it (1 minute)


http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/clips/zxt6n39

Now add 5 more points about penicillin and it’s discovery using the information on the video to help


http://www.bbc.co.uk/education/clips/zxt6n39

Key words:


What is Penicillin?

Penicillin is an antibiotic. ‘Antibiotic’ literally means ‘against life’ –

but antibiotics only kill life that is harmful to living creatures, i.e. bacteria.

A bacterial infection is caused by millions of tiny bacteria that are trying to survive and multiply in the body. An antibiotic attacks and kills these bacteria.

Before the development of penicillin, many people suffered and died from bacterial infections that are no longer considered dangerous today.

Key words:


So did Fleming actually discover penicillin?

Penicillin is made from a mould called penicillium. This mould was first discovered in the early 19th century by John Sanderson who found that very little grew near it.

In the 1880s, Joseph Lister noted these observations and wrote to his brother to say that he intended to try penicillin on infected wounds.

Lister successfully treated a nursewith an infected wound with penicillin, but did not leave any notes on the case and apparently did not continue his research in this area.

Key words:


Who was Alexander Fleming?

Alexander Fleming was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, in 1881. He was the son of a farmer.

When he was 13, he moved to London to live with his older brother.

After graduating from the University of London, he became a bacteriologist at St. Mary’s Hospital in the city.

Key words:


The great re-discovery of penicillin!

It was in the laboratory of St. Mary’s Hospital in 1928 that Fleming rediscovered the properties of penicillin. This source comes from a biography, The Life of Sir Alexander Fleming, written in 1963. It describes when Fleming was visited by his friend, Pryce.

‘Fleming was in his little laboratory as usual, surrounded by innumerable dishes. The cautious Scot disliked being separated from his cultures before he was quite sure there was nothing more to be learned from them... Fleming took up several old cultures and removed the lids. Several of the containers had been contaminated with mould... ‘As soon as you uncover a culture dish,’ he said to Pryce, ‘something tiresome is sure to happen. Things fall out of the air.’

Suddenly he stopped talking, then, after a moment’s observation, said... ‘That’s funny...’ On the cultures at which he was looking there was a growth of mould, as on several of the others, but on this particular one, all around the mould, the colonies of staphylococci had been dissolved...’

Key words:


So what did the mould look like?


Key words:


How had it got into Fleming’s dish?

• On investigation, Fleming found that penicillin spores had got on to the dish, perhaps blown into his lab through an open window. The penicillin was killing the staphylococci.

• Whether the account we just read it how it really happened, we cannot be sure – even Fleming’s own accounts of how it happened varied! Does that matter?

• The important point is that Fleming identified the mould and saw its significance – that penicillin could be applied to or injected into areas where there were penicillin-sensitive microbes .

• However, Fleming did not have the facilities or the support to develop and test his idea that penicillin could fight infection.

Key words:


Answer the questions in your book.

• Why is Fleming usually thought of as the discoverer of penicillin?

• Why do you think that so many people observed the power of penicillin but did not develop it as a cure?


Key words:


Questions on penicillin

1. What is penicillin?2. What part did chance play in the discovery of penicillin?3. How did war influence the development of penicillin?4. How did governments help in the mass production of

penicillin?5. What other factors were important in the development

of the drug?6. Why was penicillin mass produced in 1942-1945 and not

before?7. Who deserves most of the credit for Penicillin?8. Add the major steps in the discovery/development of

penicillin to your ongoing timeline.

Antibiotic Discovery - Royton and Crompton Academy

Documents

Transcript of Antibiotic Discovery - Royton and Crompton Academy