Ernst Boris Chain
Sir Ernst Boris Chain ( born June 19, 1906 in Berlin, † August 12 1979 in Castlebar, Ireland ) was a German - British biochemist and bacteriologist. He is co-founder of chemical and medical research in antibiotics, especially penicillin on.
Life
Ernst Boris Chain, son of a Russian immigrant to Germany Jewish chemical manufacturers, studied chemistry and medicine in Berlin at the Friedrich Wilhelm University and received his doctorate in 1930 up there with Wilhelm Schlenk. He worked from 1930 to 1933 at the Charité in Berlin, where he studied with biochemical studies of enzymes. After the Nazis came to power, he fled in April 1933 to Britain, where he could continue his research at the Institute for Biochemistry in Cambridge. From 1935 he worked as a chemist at the University of Oxford in the Department of the pathologist Howard Walter Florey. In 1939, he received British citizenship. In 1949 he became director of the Research Institute for Chemical Microbiology at the Instituto Superiore de Sanità in Rome and in 1961 Professor ( since 1973 Senior Research Fellow and Prof. em. ) At the Imperial College of Science in London.
Scientific performance
Chain made especially for the isolation and chemical description as well as the systematic improvement of penicillin Erstpräparates earned, which he achieved by freeze -drying. Since 1939 he started together with Florey systematic study of antibacterial substances from microorganisms. This brought him into contact with ten years ago made by Alexander Fleming discover penicillin around. However, Fleming made no attempts to use penicillin to cure awakening. Chain and Florey succeeded after weeks of work to stabilize the unstable penicillin and demonstrate its therapeutic efficacy against certain bacterial infections of laboratory mice. After this success Chain continued his studies and worked on the isolation and elucidation of the chemical structure of penicillin and other antibiotics. For the discovery of penicillin and its curative effect in various infectious diseases, 1945, he received, Howard Walter Florey and Alexander Fleming shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
In addition to his research on penicillin Chain worked on snake venoms, the metabolism of tumors and the relationships between hydrocarbon and amino acid in the nervous tissue. He developed methods and devices for biochemical microanalysis.
Honors
In addition chain was commander of the Legion of Honour, and in 1956 was awarded the Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic. In 1969 he was raised to the peerage.
Personal
Chain married in 1948, the Russian-born Englishwoman Anne Beloff and had with her three children. Chain was considering a career as a pianist at times to start and entered Berlin in addition to his work in public concerts.