Throughout history, many world-changing drug discoveries have been made, and they have often had profound and lasting impacts on health care of the human population. Among the many pioneers of drug discovery, Sir Howard Walter Florey (September 24, 1898 – February 21, 1968) was responsible for the discovery of penicillin, an antibiotic capable of killing a wide range of different bacterial species. The creation of penicillin, in addition to saving countless lives during World War II, led to the start of the Golden Age of Antibiotics, during which many innovations in antibiotics were made available in the pharmaceutical industry. Florey's contribution to the development of penicillin was so important to the world that the 12th Prime Minister of Australia, Sir Robert Menzies, said: "In terms of welfare, Florey was the most important man ever born in Australia” (University of Adelaide). 2018). He received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1945 alongside Sir Ernst Chain and Sir Alexander Fleming for his contribution to the discovery of penicillin (Science History Institute 2017). Florey was born to Joseph Florey, an English immigrant boot maker, and Bertha Mary, an Australian born in Adelaide, South Australia (Fenner 1996). He graduated from the University of Adelaide with an MB, B.S in 1921 and soon after was offered a Rhodes Scholarship by the University of Oxford where he completed his B.Sc. and a master's degree in 1924 (Fenner 1996). He then transferred to the University of Cambridge where he carried out research into natural antibacterial substances, particularly the lysosome (discovered by Alexander Fleming as having antibacterial properties in 1922) and received his doctorate in 1927 (Fenner 1996 ).Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an original essay After receiving his doctorate, Florey held various positions as an academic, starting with lecturing in the pathology department of Cambridge where he also directed his thesis on blood and lymphatic circulation (Fenner 1996). Subsequently, he was appointed professor of pathology at the University of Sheffield in 1931 before finally transferring to the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology as director in 1936 (Fenner 1996). Before his retirement from the Sir William Dunn School in 1962, it was there that Florey made his legendary discovery of penicillin (Fenner 1996). These days, bacterial infections are sometimes considered somewhat insignificant or, at the very least, of little concern to today's generation. Before the discovery of penicillin, the threat that a bacterial infection posed to a patient was equivalent to the danger that cancer poses to a patient today. In 1929, Fleming published an article in the British Journal of Experimental Pathology that essentially summarized that the fungal mold Penicillium inhibited the growth of staphylococci on a staphylococcal culture plate (Eickhoff 2008). Although Fleming was credited with discovering the antibacterial properties of the Penicillium mold, he was unable to turn it into an industrially applicable antibiotic because he had difficulty isolating and mass-producing penicillin synthetically. Fleming ended his research on penicillin in 1931 and several years later, Florey and Ernst Chain broke the code and found a way to isolate penicillin (Eickhoff 2008). The Second World War particularly raised awareness of the extreme dangers of bacterial infections and placed this demand at the top of the agenda:soldiers died from minor cuts and scrapes on the battlefield. As such, the American War Production Board (WBP) was willing to fund enormous sums of money into antibacterial drug research (Quinn 2013). Therefore, this allowed Florey, as director of the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, to begin researching antibacterial drugs. versatile scientists with strong knowledge in multiple disciplines from around the world. Among the team assembled by Florey was Ernst Chain, a genius specializing in the field of chemistry and physiology; he also happened to be one of the first scientists hired (Science History Institute 2017). Florey and his team began a research project on lysosome crystallization (an enzyme he had studied in the past and which continues to pique his interest) and the characteristics of its substrate (Science History Institute 2017). Their research on the lysosome ended in 1938, which led to their next research project; production of antibacterial substances by certain microorganisms (penicillin is one of them) and their biochemical and biological properties (Science History Institute 2017). During the research, Chain discovered a method for purifying and concentrating penicillin, which included a few key points: the penicillin broth had to be controlled within a certain pH range, the sample had to be cooled, and the product had to be evaporated several times (Science History Institute 2017). In May 1940, Florey conducted perhaps the most important experiment ever: he injected four of eight mice infected with hemolytic streptococci with penicillin and something extraordinary happened ( Science History Institute 2017). Sixteen and a half hours passed and the four mice injected with penicillin were still alive while the other four all died from the strep infection (Science History Institute 2017). This experiment was repeated several times to confirm the effectiveness of the antibacterial properties of penicillins and soon after, Florey and Chain published a paper on their findings in the Lancet in 1940 (Science History Institute 2017). Unsurprisingly, this left researchers around the world in awe of Florey and his teams' astonishing discovery. Naturally, Florey conducted human tests in January 1941, and in February 1941, an infected police officer became the first patient to be treated with penicillin. At the start of treatment, the drug was found to be effective. However, there was a problem with a limited supply of penicillin. Due to a lack of penicillin, the police officer ultimately died. This motivated Florey to find a way to mass produce penicillin (Science History Institute 2017). One of the first steps in producing penicillin was to cultivate the Penicillium mold on the surface where it can be exposed to air and grow (Science History Institute 2017). In an effort to produce as much penicillin as possible, all of the institution's laboratories and nearby facilities at the Dunn School of Pathology were occupied by ceramic pots and basins cultivating the Penicillium mold (Science History Institute 2017). Even getting to this point, the reality was that they still weren't producing as much penicillin as they needed. Florey desperately contacted many British pharmaceutical companies to ask for help in the production of penicillin, but all the companies rejected him (due to priorities in manufacturing other drugs), except.