Bacterial cells have an added layer of protection, called the cell wall, that animal cells don't. Assembling this tough armor entails multiple steps, some of which are targeted by antibiotics like ...

When penicillin came into use in the first half of the 20th century, it was hailed as a miracle drug, and it remains one of the scientific marvels of the 20th century. The bacteria it used to ...

Researchers have simplified the operation of an important class of chemical transformation: synthesis of beta-lactams, the intricate scaffold of many antibiotics. Their experimental protocol minimizes ...

Political activist and Nobel winner Dorothy Crowfoot Hodgkin pioneered X-ray crystallography to discover the molecular structures of penicillin and insulin. Despite Hodgkin’s academic aptitude, her ...