Martin Cole's copy of 'Nature' with article on 6-APA

Copy of 'Nature', 185, 16 July 1960, including ‘Formation of 6-aminopenicillanic acid from penicillin by enzymatic hydrolysis’ by G N Rolinson, F R Batchelor, D Butterworth, J Cameron-Wood, M Cole, G C Eustace, Marian V Heart, M Richards and E B Chain, pp236-237

Authored by 10 scientists, this article hints at the team work required to make breakthroughs in medicine research, development and delivery.

Research in 1957 by the team at Beecham Research Laboratories led to the development of several semi-synthetic penicillins. By tweaking 6 aminopenicillanic acid's chemical structure, scientists created medicines to treat a wider range of bacterial infections, with fewer side effects.

Frank Ralph Batchelor (1931-2021), Frank Doyle (1921-2006), John Nayler and George Rolinson (1928-2016) published their results in the journal Nature. Their careers focused on antibiotics, remaining at Beechams for most of their working lives. Many others would join them including Martin Cole, a microbiologist. He headed up the team which first discovered and named olivanic acids and clavulanic acid and then combined the latter with amoxicillin, to produce co amoxiclav, brand name Augmentin.

The last name on the paper is Ernst Chain (1906-1979) who alongside Howard Florey (1898-1968) and Alexander Fleming (1881-1955) won the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on penicillin.