Researched
Sulfa drugs
Prontosil, a red dye, cured bacterial blood infections in 1935 and led to the sulfonamides, the first widely useful antibacterial drugs.
Open in the interactive tree →Gerhard Domagk found the effect in mice in 1932 (Nobel Prize 1939), and a Pasteur Institute team showed the active part was sulfanilamide, a compound known since 1908. Sulfa drugs saved many lives until penicillin became available in the 1940s.