London - A piece of mould which changed the face of medicine was today sold for £8,050 at auction. The sample, sealed in a two-inch diameter glass container, was bought by a Cheltenham-based autograph collector on behalf of an American company.
Believed to have been spawned from the original penicillium notatum mould, its underside was signed by the inventor of penicillin, Alexander Fleming, a year before his death. It reads: "Penicillium notatum - the mould that makes penicillin. Alexander Fleming, 1954".
