Penicillin-binding Proteins and the Future of  -Lactam Antibiotics: The Seventh Fleming Lecture

The development of P-lactam antibiotics has come a long way since the discovery of penicillin by Fleming in 1929 and of cephalosporins by Abraham and Newton in 1953. Over the last twenty years manipulation of the sidechains of the penicillin and cephalosporin nuclei has produced a wide range of potent antibiotics, and in recent years active fi-lactam antibiotics with