Ernst Chain

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

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. 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. His family was Jewish. His father emigrated from Russia to study chemistry abroad and his mother was from Berlin. In 1930, he received his degree in chemistry from Friedrich Wilhelm University. He left Nazi Germany and worked at universities and laboratories in England.

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Category:1906 births
Category:1979 deaths
Category:British biochemists
Category:British Nobel Prize winners
Category:Fellows of the Royal Society
Category:German biochemists
Category:Jewish British academics
Category:Jewish British scientists
Category:Jewish German scientists
Category:Jewish Nobel Prize winners
Category:Knights Bachelor
Category:Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
Category:German Nobel Prize winners
Category:Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine winners