Penicillin Essay

1900’s, it revolutionized the medical world forever. Before this discovery millions and millions of people died from minor infections; there was not anything to fight off the growing bacteria. There are many types of antibiotics but the discovery of penicillin was first and it would leave everyone amazed and alive to this day. Antibiotics are known to be used for fighting off bacteria oriented diseases. “Antibiotics work by blocking vital processes in bacteria, killing the bacteria, or stopping

are becoming resilient against the medicine that should kill them? Even though bacteria are more resistant, antibiotics can still be effective towards the pathogenic bacteria. Penicillin has been noted as the one of the most significant finding in medical history (Bud, 2007 p. 1). Since it’s serendipitous discovery, penicillin is used to combat illnesses in patients in a quick and efficient

Fleming’s work was later expanded by Howard Florey and Ernst Chain and their team at Oxford University beginning in 1938, about ten years after Fleming’s first findings. They were able to transform penicillin as a curiosity in the lab and antiseptic to the life-saving antibiotic we know it as today. Howard Florey was deemed at an early age by his older sister who was a medical student at the time to be the next “Pasteur” due to his interest in pursuing medical research. Florey then achieved much

(noun) 1. An antibiotic or group of antibiotics produced naturally by certain blue moulds, now usually prepared synthetically. 2. A blue mould of a type that produces penicillin (Oxford University Press 2015) Penicillin was first discovered in 1928 and quickly became known as a miracle drug. Penicillin’s areas of largest significance fall into three categories and this essay will briefly outline how Penicillin’s discovery contributed historically, scientifically and in the military, particularly

Antibiotics have played a major role in our society thanks to Sir Alexander Fleming's careful observations in 1928. Without it, many lives would be in danger due to infectious diseases. Antibiotics are chemical substances produced by various species of microorganisms and other living systems that are capable in small concentrations of inhibiting the growth of or killing bacteria and other microorganisms. These organisms can be bacteria, viruses, fungi, or animals called protozoa.

years, when drug companies started to mass produce penicillin, in 1943, the first signs of penicillin-resistant bacteria started to show up. The first bacteria that fought penicillin was called Staphylococcus aureus. This bug is usually harmless but can cause an illness such as pneumonia. In 1967, another penicillin-resistant bacteria formed. It was called pneumococcus and it broke out in a small village in Papua New Guinea. Other penicillin resistant bacteria that formed are Enterococcus faecium

mold in a discarded petri dish. He then observed that the mold was killing the bacteria that he had been growing in the petri dish. After that point in time they began mass producing this newly discovered mold or antibiotic that Fleming named Penicillin. Penicillin saved thousands of lives in World War II and has been crushing bacterial infection ever since it was first used. All over the world we have been putting antibiotics into everything imaginable. Things like dog food, air fresheners and even

Antibiotics are one of the secondary metabolites produced by some fungi and bacteria that selectively inhibit the growth of another. Secondary metabolites have no role in the growth of the organisms and, indeed, may have little or no primary function within the organism. They are produced when the organism enters the stationary phase, once the initial phase of rapid growth has declined. At the stationary phase, the organisms are with the slowed growth rate, caused by depletion of nutrients, or accumulation

target molecules are peptidoglycan cross-linking enzymes (e.g. transpeptidases and carboxypeptidases) which can bind beta-lactam antibiotics (penicillin binding proteins, PBP). (Heesemann, 1993). Beta-lactam antibiotics efficiently block the normal transpeptidation process by inhibiting the bacterial transpeptidase. Therefore these enzymes are often termed penicillin-binding proteins or PBPs.They can do this due to a stereochemical similarity of the beta-lactam moiety with the D-alanine-D-alanine substrate

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas. I used books, websites, and scholarly projects to understand the topic at a molecular level. After researching penicillin, Staphylococcus aureas, and Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureas, I found that both the drug and the bacteria use enzymes as their defense and attack mechanism. Penicillin uses a ß-lactam ring as a substrate to clog the active site of transpeptidase, and in defense, the bacteria uses ß-lactamase to break down the ß-lactam ring