Ernst Chain

Sir Ernst Boris Chain, FRS^[2] (19 June 1906 – 12 August 1979) was a German-born British biochemist.^[3]

Sir Ernst Boris Chain
Ernst Boris Chain (1945)
Born	(1906-06-19)19 June 1906 Berlin, Germany
Died	12 August 1979(1979-08-12) (aged 73) Castlebar, Ireland
Citizenship	German (until 1939) British (from 1939)
Alma mater	Friedrich Wilhelm University
Known for	The development of Penicillin
Spouse	Anne Beloff-Chain (m. 1948–1979, his death)
Children	Benjamin and Danny[1]
Awards	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1945) Fellow of the Royal Society (1948) Knight Bachelor(1969)
Scientific career
Fields	Biochemistry
Institutions	Imperial College London University of Cambridge University of Oxford Istituto Superiore di Sanità

He shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, with Alexander Fleming and Howard Florey, for the discovery of penicillin and how it could cure bacterial infections.^[4] Later he worked on the chemical structure of penicillin and other natural antibiotics.

Chain was Jewish and moved to England in 1933. In 1939, he took British citizenship, and was knighted in 1969.

He won many awards: he was made a Commander of the Légion d'Honneur and awarded the Grande Ufficiale al Merito della Repubblica Italiana.

Life and career

Chain was born in Berlin, the son of Margarete (née Eisner) and Michael Chain, who was a chemist and industrialist dealing in chemical products.^[5][6] His family was Jewish. His father emigrated from Russia to study chemistry abroad and his mother was from Berlin.^[7] In 1930, he received his degree in chemistry from Friedrich Wilhelm University. He left Nazi Germany and worked at universities and laboratories in England.