3-057-002 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Model of culture dish and Penicillin mould. In 1928, while carrying out research into influenza, British microbiologist Alexander Fleming discovered that a green mould growing in a culture dish had killed the surrounding bacteria. This is a model of the original culture dish from Dr Alexander Fleming's papers. Fleming showed in laboratory experiments that this mould, Penicillin notatum, was effective against many disease-causing bacteria such as those responsible for gonorrhoea and meningitis. It was not until the Second World War that Fleming's work was fully exploited and a method for the industrial production of penicillin was developed by Sir Howard Florey.