Alexander Fleming Laboratory Museum
| Address: | St Mary’s Hospital, Praed Street, Paddington, W2 1NY |
|---|---|
| Phone: | 0203-312 6528 |
| Website: | |
| Opening times: | Mon–Thur 10:00–13:00 |
| How to get there: | Rail: Paddington |
| Entry fee: | Admission charge |
| Additional information: | No disabled access |
| This small museum includes a reconstruction of the small, cramped laboratory where Alexander Fleming (1881–1955) discovered penicillin on 3rd December 1928. In 1906 Fleming had joined the research department at St Mary’s as assistant bacteriologist to Sir Almroth Wright. While working on staphylococci bacteria, Fleming noticed that a mould had grown on some of his culture dishes and that colonies of staphylococci could not survive near it. He correctly surmised that the mould was producing an anti-bacterial chemical. The mould was identified as penicillium notatum, which had produced what is now known as penicillin. Fleming published his research in 1929 but it was not until 1938 that it was developed further, by Professor Howard Florey and Dr Ernst Chain of Oxford University, who worked towards purifying the compound. Their work resulted in the commercial manufacture of penicillin in the USA, and the full realisation of its importance to world medicine. Fleming, Florey and Chain were awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine in 1945. Displays and videos tell the story of Fleming and his revolutionary drug. | |
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MUSEUMS & GALLERIES OF LONDON
Details below are taken from our Blue Guide Museums and Galleries of London. This is a 2005 title, here generally updated for website address and opening times, with useful comments from some of the museums themselves. More recent information is given in Emily Barber's magisterial new Blue Guide London, "Exceptional update to a classic and useful guide to this amazing city" (Amazon reader review).
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