of America Typhus Commission Medal after the war for his pioneering work. Blood processing As violence mounted across the theatres of war, so did the need for blood transfusion to wounded soldiers. In 1941, Connaught undertook an initiative to dramatically expand capacity for blood processing into freeze-dried serum, which could be transported more effectively than liquid blood. By March 1942, more than 11,000 blood donations were collected monthly through the national Red Cross. By October, over 57,000 donations were received monthly. Over the course of the war, Connaught received more than 2.5 million blood donations which made it possible to furnish 500,000 bottles of dried serum. To accommodate the increasing need for processing space, some peacetime projects were stopped or crowded together to make room. The former Knox College building on One Spadina Crescent was purchased in August 1943, further expanding capacity for dried serum production. Connaught contributed all space and services without charge. Penicillin Penicillin was discovered in 1928 by Alexander Fleming, who noticed airborne moulds (later identified as penicillum) on his Petri dish that seemed to be inhibiting bacterial growths. These initial findings received little attention, however, although Fleming did conduct several experiments on the antibiotic substance to stabilize the compound and prove its safety for human use. Researchers at Connaught Laboratories' neighbouring Banting Institute had also requested a small sample, but had not pursued further development. Then in 1941, a team led by Howard Florey at the University of Oxford completed an initial re-investigation of the properties and preparation methods of penicillin. In recognition of this work, the Nobel Prize was awarded in 1945 to Fleming, Florey, and Chain. War meant a greater incidence of wound infections, often by staphylococcus ("staph") and streptococcus ("strep") bacteria. Since demand was high and it took weeks to cultivate penicillin, the supply of penicillin ran out. Therefore, Howard Florey and Norman Heatley accepted an invitation by the Rockefeller Foundation to come to North America to round up production capacity. In Toronto, Drs. Phillip Greey and Alice Gray of the University of Toronto Department of Pathology and Bacteriology began this work in collaboration with Drs. C.C. Lucas and S.F. MacDonald of the Banting Institute. Following initial advances in chemical preparation, the National Research Council of Canada arranged for large-scale production via the Connaught Laboratories in 1943. The work "was carried on twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week", and involved heavy