A street -- Heatley Road, in Oxford Science Park -- has been named after an Oxford scientist who helped develop penicillin.

Dr Norman Heatley, 91, who lives in Marston, worked with Florey and Chain during the Second World War, when scientists proved the drug could treat what had previously been life-threatening infections.

The park's business development manager, Ian McPherson, said: "The work of the Oxford University scientists who developed penicillin made an immeasurable contribution to world health.

"Dr Heatley was especially pleased that the roadside has been planted with a mixture of indigenous woodland including oak, birch, ash and willow, providing new habitat for local wildlife and a green legacy for future generations." The Oxford team, working at the Sir William Dunn School of Pathology, in South Parks Road, proved that the drug cured mice. They battled wartime shortages to produce enough of the penicillin mould to treat patients at the Radcliffe Infirmary.

The first to benefit was an Oxford policeman, but the Government then asked a US firm to take over production because Britain did not have the resources to produce the drug, which saved thousands of lives during the war.