Mass Production of Penicillin
College of Agricultural and Life Sciences
During World War II countless lives were saved through the use of the antibiotic penicillin, a natural product of a mold. However, the drug became widely available only after a method was developed to mass-produce it from a selected and genetically altered strain of the mold. University of Wisconsin bacteriologist Kenneth B. Raper isolated a productive organism, botanist John F. Stauffer genetically modified it, and biochemists William H. Peterson and Marvin Johnson developed submerged fermentation techniques to produce penicillin in quantity. The early wholesale cost of 100,000 units dropped from twenty dollars to three cents by the end of the war.
Marker is at the intersection of Linden Drive and Babcock Drive, on the left when traveling east on Linden Drive.
Courtesy hmdb.org
