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| Antibiotics are used to treat [[Bacteria|bacteria]] that cause [[Infection|infection]]. The first antibiotic to be discovered was penicillin and was founded by Alexander Flemming.
| | See [[Antibiotics|Antibiotics]] |
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| = '''How was it Discovered?''' =
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| Alexander Flemming discovered penicillin completely by accident. He was working with a strain of ''Staphylococcus'' [[Bacteria|bacteria]] and found that the petri dishes became infected with [[Fungi|fungi]]. However there was a ring around each colony where the [[Bacteria|bacteria]] had died. Flemming did some research into the [[Fungi|fungi]] and found it came from the penecillium genus which is how penicillin got its name.<sup>1</sup>
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| = '''Why do Antibiotics Work?''' =
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| [[Bacteria|Bacteria]] and [[Eukaryotes|eukaryotes]] form two different kingdoms meaning that there are many differences between them. These differences can be exploited when trying to beat an [[Infection|infection]]. Drugs can directly inhibit a process in [[Bacteria|bacteria without]] causing any disruption to a similar process in the host [[Organism|organism]]. Many antibiotics target the [[Cell wall|cell wall biosynthesis]] as [[Eukaryotic cells|eukaryotic cells]] don’t have cell walls making it an easy target.<sup>2</sup>
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| = '''References''' =
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| 1. Sadava et al (2012). Life, the Science of Biology. 10th ed. Sunderland: Sinauer Associates Inc. 608.
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| 2. Alberts et al. (2008). Molecular Biology of the Cell. 5th ed. New York: Garland Science. 1521-1522.
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Latest revision as of 06:12, 16 October 2014