Micrococcin P1 holds the remarkable position in antibiotic discovery as the first of the early antibiotics to be lost to science. Micrococcin P1 is a thiopeptide originally isolated from Micrococcus sp. by Su at Oxford in 1948. Later, Heatley and Doery purified micrococcin and defined its physico-chemical properties and activity. The producing strain was lost, causing a hiatus in research of this antibiotic family until the discovery of the related thiocillins in 1976.