Chain, Ernst Boris (1906-1979), a British biochemist, shared the 1945 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine with Alexander Fleming and Howard Florey for their research on penicillin. Fleming had discovered that penicillin destroyed many types of disease-causing bacteria. Beginning in 1938, Chain worked with Florey on antibiotic substances produced by various microorganisms. They purified penicillin in a way that made it possible to use the drug as an antibiotic. Chain was born on June 19, 1906, in Berlin, Germany. He died on Aug. 12, 1979.
