Exhibition

This exhibition marks penicillin’s 75th anniversary as a life-saving drug. Discovered as an antibacterial substance produced by the penicillium notatum mould in 1928 by Alexander Fleming, it was turned into a medicine in Oxford ten years later and first tested on humans here in 1941. The success of penicillin was extraordinary; it seemed to bring patients back from the dead.

Penicillin became the most iconic drug of a new era of antibiotics. While vital to modern medicine, penicillin and other antibiotics have not eradicated infectious disease. Bacteria develop resistance to antibiotics so the work of preventing and fighting infection continues not just in Oxford but around the world.

The exhibition brings together dramatic stories and surviving material from the original Oxford research, displayed in parallel with today’s antibiotic issues, allowing past and present to illuminate each other.