New approaches for new antibiotics

Abstract

Seventy years ago, Sir Alexander Fleming was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine along with Howard Florey and Ernst Chain for "the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases". Fleming was born and grew up in the small village of Darvel in Ayrshire, Scotland. His work, as a famous son of Scotland, is commemorated on a bank note. Ironically, this also demonstrates how much we have come to undervalue and take antibiotics for granted, as it is the lowest denomination note in the currency - the £5 note.