text: The discovery of penicillin as an antibiotic was one of the greatest advances in medicinal chemistry.  As a natural antibiotic, penicillin was discovered to have many uses in stopping and preventing the spread of infections.  This "wonder-drug" also led to the discovery of a variety of other naturally-occurring antibiotics that could also be cultured "in vitro" in a laboratory.  This sudden burst of useful compounds not only improved the chances of a patient's survival in a hospital but also caused a great need for medical chemists to study and classify each new drug as it was discovered.
  	As discoveries of new antibiotics decreased, chemists began to wonder if certain variations of these drugs could be synthesized and also used as medicine.  It was also attemped to increase the production of the naturally-occurring antibiotics through synthesis.  Both of these new attempts caused a need for more research, more companies, and more medical chemists, and the industry increased tremendously.  It was discovered that the older drugs could be synthesized efficiently while still remaining biologically active.  New drugs were also synthesized; some were found to be medically useful while others were not.  A variety of new drugs continuously appeared on the market and changed the way people thought about taking medicine.  It was now much easier to obtain antibiotics for simple illnesses, such as the common cold.  Huge enterprises, such as Upjohn, were formed and grew, and universities had research teams devoted to producing efficient synthesis routes for the production of all kinds of antibiotics.
  	The discovery of one compound led to the increase of health of millions of people, to the discovery of more and more antibiotics, and to a booming industry comprised of research teams and large companies. The synthesis of antibiotics and research of their uses still continues today as thousands of universities and companies around the world continue the work of a small bacteria -- the producer of penicillin.
edits.text: medical , attempted bacterium -