1938 - Florey and Chain's Research

• Florey and Chain's research and trials began

  1938
• Florey and Chain read Fleming's medical article about penicillin and realised it could be effective
• Florey and Chain applied for government funding for research (they raised a total of £25)
• Florey asked American government for money and got enough money to pay for 5 years of research
• Penicillin mass production

  1. Florey and Chain grew penicillin themselves in 100s of pans

  2. By 1941 they had enough penicillin to test on 1 person
• A volunteer (Albert) who was ill was found to test penicillin
• Penicillin treatment

  1. First they gave him chemical drugs which didn't help and the patient was beginning to die

  2. They tried giving him penicillin and began injections straight away, this helped the patient

  3. As the patient was beginning to recover, they ran out of penicillin

  4. Albert died without penicillin