AROUND LAB NEWS

20/10/2025

🧬 October 20 — Howard Florey (1898–1968) & Ernst Chain (1906–1979)
The team that turned penicillin into a “miracle” drug.

When Alexander Fleming observed penicillin (1928) he couldn’t purify it, produce enough of it, or demonstrate its clinical potential; for over a decade it remained a laboratory curiosity. At Oxford, Howard Florey (pathologist) and Ernst Chain (biochemist) decided to start from scratch: between 1939–1941 they solved the purification problem, characterized the substance, and obtained quantities sufficient for testing. The results were striking: in mouse models with lethal infections, 100% survival with penicillin, 0% without. In 1941 the first human patient, police officer Albert Alexander, showed dramatic improvement—until supplies ran out. Subsequent cases (mostly children) recovered.

One major obstacle remained: mass production. Florey flew to the United States (1941), where, with the USDA laboratory in Peoria, Illinois, and pharmaceutical companies (Pfizer, Merck, Squibb), they moved to deep-tank fermentation. A phenomenal strain, Penicillium chrysogenum, was found on a moldy cantaloupe from the Peoria market, and the medium was optimized with corn steep liquor (an abundant industrial by-product). From there the escalation:
• 1942: penicillin sufficient for ~10 patients
• 1943: supplies for the Allied military
• 1944: 2.3 million doses ready for D-Day
• 1945: mass civilian availability

In 1945 the Nobel Prize went to Fleming, Florey, and Chain. Less known, but crucial, was the work of Norman Heatley, who devised key extraction methods and equipment to scale the process. They chose not to patent penicillin—a decision that accelerated global dissemination and saved millions of lives, while forgoing enormous financial returns.

The impact? A paradigm shift: infections once often fatal became treatable; surgery was transformed; life expectancy rose. Most importantly, a model was born: from discovery to purification, from preclinical testing to the clinic, all the way to industrial scale-up. Every modern antibiotic, vaccine, or biological therapy still follows the pipeline that Florey & Chain built for penicillin.

19/10/2025

🧫 October 19 — Selman Waksman (1888–1973)
The man who industrialized antibiotic discovery.

While Fleming’s penicillin arose by chance, Waksman chose the systematic route. A soil microbiologist at Rutgers, he realized that earth teems with microorganisms engaged in chemical warfare: each produces molecules to inhibit competitors. From this came his program: isolate actinomycetes (especially Streptomyces), screen them for antimicrobial activity, purify the active compounds, and test them. Hypothesis-driven, industrial-scale science.

In 1943, after thousands of isolates, graduate student Albert Schatz identified Streptomyces griseus, which produced streptomycin, the first effective treatment for tuberculosis. It was a watershed: sanatoriums began to empty, and the possibility emerged of taming bacterial diseases that had been intractable.

As early as 1942, Waksman had coined the term “antibiotic” to denote microbially produced substances that kill or inhibit other microorganisms—a precise word that entered everyday language. His method became an industry template:
1. Collect soil samples from diverse environments
2. Isolate actinomycetes
3. Screen for antimicrobial activity
4. Purify and characterize active compounds
5. Test toxicity and efficacy

From this gold rush emerged iconic classes: chloramphenicol, tetracyclines, erythromycin, and from Waksman’s own lab neomycin. His group described over 20 antibiotics (including actinomycin, the first with anticancer activity, and candicidin).

The 1952 Nobel Prize recognized streptomycin; controversy followed over Schatz, excluded from the award but later compensated and acknowledged as co-discoverer. Beyond credit, Waksman’s deepest insight was ecological: antibiotics are evolutionary weapons. Where competition is fiercest, natural chemistry is richer—and resistance mechanisms co-evolve.

The legacy is double: a pipeline that has saved millions of lives, and a warning of a post-antibiotic era if use remains indiscriminate. Today’s challenge is to return to the lesson of the soil: seek new environments, new niches, new producers—and use these gifts with greater wisdom.

vr5

19/10/2025

🧬 Francesco Blasi – 19 ottobre 1937
Oggi ricordiamo Francesco Blasi, biologo italiano nato il 19 ottobre 1937.
Sebbene conosciuto soprattutto per i suoi studi in biologia, le sue ricerche hanno avuto possibile impatto anche nel campo della microbiologia. Un esempio di come la scienza sia spesso un territorio di confine, dove discipline diverse si incontrano e si arricchiscono a vicenda. 🔬🇮🇹

18/10/2025

🧬 October 18 — Kary Mullis (1944–2019)
The inventor of PCR: the in-tube DNA amplification that changed diagnostics, forensics, and research.

On a Friday night in 1983 along California’s Highway 128, Mullis had an insight: use two primers flanking the DNA region of interest, a DNA polymerase, and repeated temperature cycles to double the target sequence each time. Thus was born the Polymerase Chain Reaction.

How it works (elegance in three steps):
1. Denaturation (~95 °C) — DNA strands separate.
2. Annealing (~50–65 °C) — primers bind the target.
3. Extension (~72 °C) — the polymerase copies the DNA.
Each cycle doubles the target: after ~30 cycles → ~2³⁰ copies (over a billion) from a trace starting amount.

The Taq breakthrough: at first, fresh enzyme had to be added each cycle because heat inactivated it. Using Taq polymerase (from the thermophilic bacterium Thermus aquaticus, hot springs) made PCR automated and practical: the enzyme survives thermal cycling and thermocyclers became universal instruments.

Why it’s a revolution:
• Diagnostics: rapid detection of pathogens (HIV, TB, SARS-CoV-2), tumor variants, prenatal testing.
• Forensics & paleogenomics: genetic fingerprints from tiny samples, paternity testing, ancient DNA.
• Research & biotech: cloning, sequencing (through the Human Genome Project), evolutionary studies, contamination control, food safety, environment.

In 1993 Mullis received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry (with Michael Smith for site-directed mutagenesis): lightning-fast recognition just ten years after the idea. Debates persist over credit for Taq and automation, but the impact is indisputable: PCR democratized molecular biology, bringing sophisticated analyses everywhere.

A brilliant and controversial figure, Mullis held disputable positions (HIV/AIDS, climate, etc.). That doesn’t change the fact that PCR is among the cornerstone inventions of the 20th century: from Neanderthal genomes to pandemic RT-PCR swabs, every epidemiological curve and molecular diagnosis bears the imprint of that 1983 insight.

From a spark at the wheel to billions of copies in a test tube: that is the power of PCR.

17/10/2025

🧬 October 17 — Carl Woese (1928–2012)
The scientist who redrew the tree of life.

For over a century we classified organisms by form, metabolism, and habitat. Woese changed the method: he compared 16S rRNA sequences, a “molecular chronometer” because ribosomes are essential (they aren’t lost), rRNA evolves slowly, and it can be compared across all living beings. Differences accumulate like the ticks of a clock and reveal deep relationships.

The discovery that shocked biology (1977): studying methanogenic microorganisms from cow rumen and marine sediments, Woese didn’t find “odd bacteria” but a third great branch of life. Those “archaebacteria” were as distant from Bacteria as Eukaryotes are: the domain Archaea was born.

The three-domain model replaced the old five kingdoms:
1. Bacteria — the “classic” bacteria (peptidoglycan, etc.);
2. Archaea — only superficially bacteria-like, but with unique membrane lipids, distinct cell wall chemistry, and different molecular machinery;
3. Eukarya — organisms with a nucleus (animals, plants, fungi, protists).
Crucial point: Archaea and Eukarya are more closely related to each other than either is to Bacteria.

Not just extremophiles: yes, hydrothermal vents and salt lakes—but also oceans, soils, and even the human microbiota. Archaea are key players in the carbon and nitrogen cycles and make up a significant share of marine plankton.

The taxonomic revolution: molecular phylogeny replaces morphology; 16S/18S becomes the gold standard for identifying microbes; metagenomics reveals an immense uncultivable biodiversity. The “tree” expands and, for prokaryotes, often looks like a network.

Woese met resistance: too radical for the establishment. But as thousands of sequences accumulated, his three-domain tree was confirmed and became a foundation of modern systematics. The deeper lesson? Sequences tell ancestry better than appearance. Convergent evolution can fool the eye; DNA does not.

Every microbiome study, every phylogenetic tree, every metagenomic survey rests on Woese’s work. And it reminds us that plants, animals, and fungi are only a small twig on a tree dominated by an invisible—and wonderful—microbial diversity.

16/10/2025

🧬 October 16 — François Jacob (1920–2013) & Jacques Monod (1910–1976)
The architects of gene regulation.

How do bacteria “know” when to produce the enzymes to digest lactose? At the Pasteur Institute in 1961, Jacob and Monod answered with a model as simple as it was profound: the lac operon.
The players: the genes lacZ–lacY–lacA (enzymes for lactose metabolism); an operator (the DNA switch); a repressor that binds the operator and blocks transcription; an inducer (lactose/allolactose) that inactivates the repressor.
The logic:
• No lactose → the repressor occupies the operator → genes OFF.
• Lactose present → the inducer binds the repressor → the repressor releases the operator → genes ON.

Here lies the revolution: genes are not always on; they respond to the environment via molecular switches. Jacob and Monod coined “operon”: a cluster of genes under unified control, transcribed as a single unit. This economical design lets bacteria regulate entire metabolic pathways with one signal. From it flow general principles: there are regulatory genes encoding regulatory proteins; regulation can be negative (repressors) or positive (activators); small molecules modulate protein function through allostery.

Together with Sydney Brenner, their work helped establish mRNA, the unstable messenger that carries instructions from DNA to ribosomes, completing the central dogma: DNA → RNA → Protein. In 1965 Jacob, Monod, and André Lwoff received the Nobel Prize “for their discoveries concerning genetic control of enzyme and virus synthesis.”

The impact goes far beyond bacteria: the same principles explain how a single genome yields hundreds of cell types, how embryonic development unfolds, how hormones reshape gene expression, and how cancer often arises from regulatory failures. The lac operon was a Rosetta Stone: it showed that genes don’t just “exist,” they are choreographed in space and time by evolution.

15/10/2025

🧬 October 15 — Joshua Lederberg (1925–2008)
The scientist who revealed bacteria’s “social side”: they exchange genes.

Bacterial conjugation (1946). At 21, working with Edward Tatum at Yale, Lederberg showed that bacteria recombine genes by direct contact—conjugation. Mixing complementary E. coli mutants that couldn’t grow on minimal medium yielded recombinant colonies that could: genes had moved cell-to-cell, shattering the dogma of strictly “asexual” bacteria and launching bacterial genetics.

Transduction (1952). With Norton Zinder, Lederberg discovered transduction—bacteriophages sometimes package host DNA and deliver it to new cells, acting as genetic shuttles. A second, distinct route of horizontal gene transfer (HGT) proved gene exchange in prokaryotes was widespread and complex.

Plasmids (1952). Lederberg coined “plasmid” for extrachromosomal DNA circles that can
• replicate independently;
• transfer between cells;
• carry genes for antibiotic resistance, toxins, or specialized metabolism.
Plasmids became the workhorses of molecular biology and a key to understanding rapid antibiotic-resistance evolution.

Nobel Prize (1958). At 33, Lederberg shared the prize with George Beadle and Edward Tatum “for discoveries concerning genetic recombination and the organization of genetic material in bacteria.” He later helped found exobiology, built computational tools for chemistry, advised on biosafety and public health, and warned early about the coming antibiotic-resistance crisis.

The lesson. Bacterial evolution isn’t only vertical. Genes flow horizontally via:
• Conjugation (cell-to-cell)
• Transduction (phage-mediated)
• Transformation (uptake of free DNA)
The microbial “tree of life” is more like a web, with DNA strands weaving unexpected—and sometimes risky—connections for global health.

15/10/2025

🌱 Sustainability in Pharma Workshop – Vienna (20 ottobre 2025)

Partecipa al workshop sulla sostenibilità a Vienna, anticipando la conferenza sui sistemi pre-riempiti. Focus su pratiche green, packaging sostenibile, carbon footprint e supply chain responsabile.

Info 👉 https://ow.ly/nWAQ50WsIzc

We would like to invite you to the PDA Sustainability in Pharma Workshop 2025 taking place on 20 October 2025 in Vienna, Austria, before the PDA Universe of Pre-Filled Syringes and Injection Devices Conference 2025.

15/10/2025

💉 Universe of Pre‑Filled Syringes – Vienna (21–22 ottobre 2025)

Partecipa a Vienna per il PDA Universe of Pre-Filled Syringes & Injection Devices: best practice su design, compliance, qualità e innovazioni di packaging per iniettabili. Non perdere workshop e case study reali.

Info e iscrizioni 👉 https://ow.ly/U0Nv50WsHLl

Save the date and join us in Vienna, Austria!

14/10/2025

🧬 October 14 — Rosalind Franklin (1920–1958)
The crystallographer who made the double helix visible.

In 1952, at King’s College London, Franklin—together with graduate student Raymond Gosling—obtained Photo 51, an X-ray diffraction image of unprecedented quality. That single frame already contained everything:
• the characteristic X-pattern indicating a helical structure;
• precise measurements of the helix pitch and diameter;
• evidence of two strands;
• the spacing between base pairs.
Her meticulous control of purity, hydration, and orientation of DNA fibers produced the finest diffraction patterns of the era.

The stolen glance. In early 1953, Maurice Wilkins showed Photo 51 to James Watson without Franklin’s permission. Combined with Franklin’s unpublished measurements (shared via an MRC report), it gave Watson and Crick the crucial pieces needed to build their model. In April 1953, Nature published the DNA structure; Franklin’s photograph appeared in the same issue as supporting evidence, but her contribution was understated—and she was never told her data had been shared.

Beyond DNA: from 1953 at Birkbeck College, Franklin transformed virus research.
• Determined the helical structure of to***co mosaic virus (TMV).
• Showed that RNA lies inside, protected by protein subunits.
• Pioneered methods for complex biological assemblies; 17 papers on virus structure in five years—a methodological legacy structural virology still relies on today.

A life cut short: Franklin died of ovarian cancer in 1958, at 37. In 1962 the Nobel Prize went to Watson, Crick, and Wilkins; the prize is not awarded posthumously and, even had she lived, it’s uncertain she would have been included. Her story is a reminder of how gender and hierarchies shaped scientific recognition.

Today Franklin is celebrated not as a mere “data collector,” but as a first-rate scientist: rigorous, incisive, and very close to the solution herself. If the 20th century learned to read DNA, it’s also because Rosalind Franklin showed us how to look at it.

13/10/2025

🧬 October 13 — Alfred Hershey (1908–1997) & Martha Chase (1927–2003)
The “blender experiment” that confirmed DNA is the genetic material.

Eight years after Avery’s 1944 results on bacterial transformation, skepticism lingered: could DNA, with only four “letters,” really carry heredity? In 1952, Hershey and Chase devised a disarmingly elegant test using bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria). Starting point: a phage particle is made only of protein (which contains sulfur but no phosphorus) and DNA (which contains phosphorus but no sulfur). All they had to do was “follow” the right element.

They prepared two phage batches labeled with radioisotopes:
• ³⁵S to tag capsid proteins
• ³²P to tag DNA

They allowed the phages to infect bacteria, then agitated the cultures in a Waring blender to strip off protein coats left on the cell surface. After centrifugation, came the decisive readout:
• ³⁵S (protein) remained in the supernatant—outside the cells
• ³²P (DNA) went into the bacterial pellet—inside the cells

Even more important: bacteria that had internalized labeled DNA produced new phages, while the capsid proteins stayed outside and weren’t required for replication. Conclusion: it is DNA that enters the cell and directs the production of new viruses. DNA is the genetic material.

Why did it convince the skeptics? Because it switched biological systems (from pneumococci to viruses), used a clean physical separation, radioactive tracers that precisely followed molecules, and visually clear outcomes (radioactive peaks in different fractions). An experiment this tidy closed the debate.

In 1969 Hershey shared the Nobel Prize for discoveries on viruses; Martha Chase, despite her crucial role, was not included—a reminder of the era’s gender biases in scientific recognition. With Avery–MacLeod–McCarty and Hershey–Chase pointing to DNA, the path was set for 1953: Watson and Crick’s double helix would explain how DNA stores and transmits information.

12/10/2025

🧬 October 12 — Oswald Avery (1877–1955)
with Colin MacLeod and Maclyn McCarty
The man who showed that DNA carries genetic information.

In 1944, at the Rockefeller Institute, Avery and his team returned to the riddle left by Frederick Griffith (1928) on pneumococcal transformation. The key question: which molecule transfers hereditary traits from one bacterium to another? The answer came through experiments of disarming simplicity and absolute rigor: they prepared “transforming” cell extracts and treated them with proteases, RNase, and finally DNase. When they destroyed proteins or RNA, the transforming ability remained; when they degraded DNA, it disappeared. Conclusion: the “transforming principle” is DNA.

The discovery was ahead of its time. In the 1940s many believed proteins, because of their complexity and variety, were the natural candidates for heredity; DNA, with only four “letters,” seemed too uniform. Only in 1953, with the double-helix model and complementary base-pairing, did it become clear how a simple structure could encode virtually infinite information. At that point Avery’s work appeared for what it was: the bridge between Mendelian genetics and molecular biology.

Across that bridge marched an entire revolution: understanding mutations, DNA replication, and gene expression; the rise of genetic engineering, sequencing, and personalized medicine, all the way to CRISPR and large-scale genomic projects. It’s hard to imagine modern biotechnology without that experimental insight: you don’t need to see the gene to prove its nature—you just methodically eliminate everything else.

Avery never received the Nobel Prize (he died in 1955), an omission many consider one of the prize’s most glaring. But the most important recognition lives in the daily work of labs and clinics: every time we read, modify, or interpret DNA, we are working in the long shadow of his experiment.

One image remains: three test tubes, three enzymes, and the needle of science swinging decisively toward DNA.