Editing Alexander Fleming (section)

==== Purification and stabilisation ====
[[File:Penicillin-G 3D.png|thumb|left|3D-model of benzylpenicillin]]
In Oxford, [[Ernst Chain]] and [[Edward Abraham]] were studying the molecular structure of the antibiotic. Abraham was the first to propose the correct structure of penicillin.<ref>in October 1943 Abraham proposed a molecular structure which included a cyclic formation containing three carbon atoms and one nitrogen atom, the β-lactam ring, not then known in natural products. This structure was not immediately published due to the restrictions of wartime secrecy, and was initially strongly disputed, by Sir Robert Robinson among others, but it was finally confirmed in 1945 by Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin using X-ray analysis." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography; "Abraham, Sir Edward Penley"</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-sir-edward-abraham-1093226.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131004222647/http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/obituary-sir-edward-abraham-1093226.html |archive-date=2013-10-04 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|location=London|work=The Independent |first=Gordon|last=Lowe|title=Obituary: Sir Edward Abraham|date=13 May 1999}}</ref> Shortly after the team published its first results in 1940, Fleming telephoned [[Howard Florey]], Chain's head of department, to say that he would be visiting within the next few days. When Chain heard that Fleming was coming, he remarked "Good God! I thought he was dead."<ref>{{cite web|last=Yanes|first=Javier|date=6 August 2018|title=Fleming and the Difficult Beginnings of Penicillin: Myth and Reality|url=https://www.bbvaopenmind.com/en/science/bioscience/fleming-and-the-difficult-beginnings-of-penicillin-myth-and-reality/|access-date=7 June 2020|website=OpenMind}}</ref>

[[Norman Heatley]] suggested transferring the active ingredient of penicillin back into water by changing its acidity. This produced enough of the drug to begin testing on animals. There were many more people involved in the Oxford team, and at one point the entire [[Sir William Dunn School of Pathology]] was involved in its production. After the team had developed a method of purifying penicillin to an effective first stable form in 1940, several clinical trials ensued, and their amazing success inspired the team to develop methods for mass production and mass distribution in 1945.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Moberg|first=C.|date=1991|title=Penicillin's forgotten man: Norman Heatley|journal=Science|volume=253|issue=5021|pages=734–735|doi=10.1126/science.1876832|pmid=1876832|bibcode=1991Sci...253..734M}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|date=23 January 2004|title=Norman Heatley|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/norman-heatley-37866.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116013016/https://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/norman-heatley-37866.html |archive-date=16 November 2020 |url-access=limited |url-status=live|access-date=7 June 2020|website=The Independent|location=London}}</ref>

Fleming was modest about his part in the development of penicillin, describing his fame as the "Fleming Myth" and he praised Florey and Chain for transforming the laboratory curiosity into a practical drug. Fleming was the first to discover the properties of the active substance, giving him the privilege of naming it: penicillin. He also kept, grew, and distributed the original mould for twelve years, and continued until 1940 to try to get help from any chemist who had enough skill to make penicillin. Sir [[Henry Harris (scientist)|Henry Harris]] summed up the process in 1998 as: "Without Fleming, no Chain; without Chain, no Florey; without Florey, no Heatley; without Heatley, no penicillin."<ref>Henry Harris, ''Howard Florey and the development of penicillin'', a lecture given on 29 September 1998, at the Florey Centenary, 1898–1998, Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, Oxford University (sound recording) [http://catalogue.nla.gov.au/Record/1610017]</ref> The discovery of penicillin and its subsequent development as a prescription drug mark the start of modern [[antibiotics]].<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Conly|first1=J. M.|last2=Johnston|first2=B. L.|date=2005|title=Where are all the new antibiotics? The new antibiotic paradox|journal=Canadian Journal of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology|volume=16|issue=3|pages=159–160|doi=10.1155/2005/892058|pmc=2095020|pmid=18159536|doi-access=free}}</ref>