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Sir William Dunn School of Pathology
Norman Heatley is often described as the unsung hero of the penicillin story. A recent PhD graduate with a genius for invention, he became a pivotal member of the Oxford team that developed the miracle drug in the early 1940s.
But while his colleagues at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology — Professor Howard Florey and Ernst Chain — were awarded the Nobel Prize for their efforts, for decades Norman’s contributions went unrecognised. His daughter Rose reflects on his incredible legacy, and explains how she plans to make her own mark on the future of human health by leaving a gift to the Dunn School in her will.
‘Penicillin was the height of my father’s career. He was very young — 30 years old,’ says Rose Heatley, Norman’s eldest daughter. She was born after the drug’s development and doesn’t recall him talking about it when she was growing up. ‘My awareness of the penicillin story and his work didn’t come until there were the anniversaries of the discovery. Daddy was always the one interviewed because all the other people involved had died, so he became the great survivor.’
Even then, she says, ‘he was so modest. He used to say: I’m not that special.’ Many would strongly disagree with that assessment, of course. In an interview with the BBC in 2010, medical historian and author Dr Eric Sidebottom described him as ‘the key technical man’ in the Oxford team. He devised a clever assay for measuring the activity of penicillin, established appropriate conditions under which it was stable, and pioneered a multi-stage technique to isolate and concentrate it.
Norman also designed the ceramic vessel used to grow the Penicillium notatum mould from which penicillin was extracted in the necessary quantities for clinical trials. ‘I’ve got one here,’ says Rose, taking it down from a shelf in her living room. Perched on top are two little vials, which read: 100,000 Oxford units, penicillin, sodium salt, store below 10 degrees centigrade. ‘I think maybe he kept his paperclips in them,’ she laughs.