Fungi have been used to make huge advancements in medicine, beginning in 1928 when scientist Alexander Fleming accidently made a discovery that led to the synthesis of penicillin. Fleming discovered an invading mould species belonging to the Penicillium genus growing on his agar plate of bacteria. He noticed that bacteria had not grown in the areas invaded by the mould.
Decades later, scientists determined how the drug derived from the mould stops the bacteria growing. The β-lactam ring in penicillin (highlighted in Figure 1) bonds covalently to the enzyme dd-transpeptidase, which is responsible for forming crosslinks within the bacterial cell wall. With the enzyme activity blocked, the bacteria cannot produce a functioning cell wall and so cannot grow and replicate (Chemistry Review Vol. 27, No. 1, p. 8).
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