Cover art

Cover art by Rakesh Gudimella. In 1964, Dorothy Hodgkin won the Nobel Prize for the discovery of the structure of penicillin using the emerging technique of x-ray crystallography. The original x-ray diffraction patterns and the subsequent molecular model she created is shown in the foreground. Although the chemical formula of penicillin was known, its structure was not, making it difficult to produce on a large scale. Her discovery set us on the path to understanding antibiotic mechanisms and opened the door for the synthesis of cephalosporins and other important medications. The background shows the chemical structures of several lifesaving and influential drugs on the WHO List of Essential Medicines