Ernst Boris Chain
Encyclopedia
Sir Ernst Boris Chain (19 June 1906 – 12 August 1979) was a German-born British biochemist, and a 1945 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work on penicillin
Penicillin
Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They include penicillin G, procaine penicillin, benzathine penicillin, and penicillin V....
.
Biography
Chain was born in Berlin to a Russian father who moved from his birthland to study chemistry abroad, and a GermanGermans
The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages....
Berliner mother. In 1930, he received his degree in chemistry
Chemistry
Chemistry is the science of matter, especially its chemical reactions, but also its composition, structure and properties. Chemistry is concerned with atoms and their interactions with other atoms, and particularly with the properties of chemical bonds....
from Friedrich Wilhelm University. After the Nazis
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
came to power, Chain knew that he, being Jewish, would no longer be safe in Germany. He left Germany in 1933 and moved to England.
He began working on phospholipid
Phospholipid
Phospholipids are a class of lipids that are a major component of all cell membranes as they can form lipid bilayers. Most phospholipids contain a diglyceride, a phosphate group, and a simple organic molecule such as choline; one exception to this rule is sphingomyelin, which is derived from...
s at Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge University
University of Cambridge
The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
under the direction of Sir Frederick Gowland Hopkins. In 1935, he accepted a job at Oxford University as a lecturer in pathology
Pathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
. During this time he worked on a range of research topics, including snake venom
Snake venom
Snake venom is highly modified saliva that is produced by special glands of certain species of snakes. The glands which secrete the zootoxin are a modification of the parotid salivary gland of other vertebrates, and are usually situated on each side of the head below and behind the eye,...
s, tumour metabolism, lysozyme
Lysozyme
Lysozyme, also known as muramidase or N-acetylmuramide glycanhydrolase, are glycoside hydrolases, enzymes that damage bacterial cell walls by catalyzing hydrolysis of 1,4-beta-linkages between N-acetylmuramic acid and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine residues in a peptidoglycan and between...
s, and biochemistry
Biochemistry
Biochemistry, sometimes called biological chemistry, is the study of chemical processes in living organisms, including, but not limited to, living matter. Biochemistry governs all living organisms and living processes...
techniques.
In 1939, he joined Howard Florey to investigate natural antibacterial agents produced by microorganism
Microorganism
A microorganism or microbe is a microscopic organism that comprises either a single cell , cell clusters, or no cell at all...
s. This led him and Florey to revisit the work of Alexander Fleming
Alexander Fleming
Sir Alexander Fleming was a Scottish biologist and pharmacologist. He wrote many articles on bacteriology, immunology, and chemotherapy...
, who had described penicillin
Penicillin
Penicillin is a group of antibiotics derived from Penicillium fungi. They include penicillin G, procaine penicillin, benzathine penicillin, and penicillin V....
nine years earlier. Chain and Florey went on to discover penicillin's therapeutic action and its chemical composition. He also theorized the structure of penicillin, which was confirmed by X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography
X-ray crystallography is a method of determining the arrangement of atoms within a crystal, in which a beam of X-rays strikes a crystal and causes the beam of light to spread into many specific directions. From the angles and intensities of these diffracted beams, a crystallographer can produce a...
done by Dorothy Hodgkin. For this research, Chain, Florey, and Fleming received the Nobel Prize in 1945.
Towards the end of World War II, Chain learned his mother and sister had perished in the war. After World War II, Chain moved to Rome, to work at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità
Istituto Superiore di Sanità
The Istituto Superiore di Sanità , also ISS, is an Italian public institution that, as the leading technical-scientific body of the Italian National Health Service , performs research, trial, control, counseling, documentation and training for public health...
(Superior Institute of Health). He returned to Britain in 1964 as head of the biochemistry department at Imperial College London
Imperial College London
Imperial College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom, specialising in science, engineering, business and medicine...
.
He was a life long friend of Professor Albert Neuberger
Albert Neuberger
Albert Neuberger CBE FRS FRCP was Professor of Chemical Pathology, St Mary's Hospital, University of London, 1955–1973, and later Emeritus Professor.-Education in Germany:...
FRS, whom he met in Berlin in the 1930s.
In 1948, he married Anne Beloff, sister of Max Beloff and Nora Beloff. In his later life, his Jewish identity became increasingly important to him. He became a member of the board of governors of the Weizmann Institute of Science
Weizmann Institute of Science
The Weizmann Institute of Science , known as Machon Weizmann, is a university and research institute in Rehovot, Israel. It differs from other Israeli universities in that it offers only graduate and post-graduate studies in the sciences....
at Rehovot
Rehovot
Rehovot is a city in the Center District of Israel, about south of Tel Aviv. According to the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics , at the end of 2009 the city had a total population of 112,700. Rehovot's official website estimates the population at 114,000.Rehovot was built on the site of Doron,...
in 1954, and later a member of the executive council. He raised his children securely within the Jewish faith, arranging much extracurricular tuition for them. His views were expressed most clearly in his speech ‘Why I am a Jew’ given at the World Jewish Congress Conference of Intellectuals in 1965.
Chain was knighted in 1969. After his retirement, he moved to Mulranny
Mulranny
Mallaranny —sometimes spelt as Malaranny, Mullaranny, Mullranny or Mulranny—is a seaside village on the isthmus between Clew Bay and Blacksod Bay in County Mayo, Ireland. Mallaranny is the home of colourful giant fuchsias and exotic plants...
near Castlebar
Castlebar
Castlebar is the county town of, and at the centre of, County Mayo in Ireland. It is Mayo's largest town by population. The town's population exploded in the late 1990s, increasing by one-third in just six years, though this massive growth has slowed down greatly in recent years...
in the west of Ireland. He died at the Mayo General Hospital
Mayo General Hospital
Mayo General Hospital is a hospital situated in Castlebar, County Mayo in Ireland, serving County Mayo. The emergency department has an attendance of 27,000 patients per year. Other services include general surgery, medicine, paediatrics, orthopaedics, and obstetrics and gynaecology. There are 332...
in 1979. When he was admitted to the hospital for the last time, he very generously praised the dedication of the young doctor (Ashoka Jahnavi-Prasad) who had attended upon him and said,"Future of medicine is safe in your hands!" which turned out to be prophetic as later on he did make significant contribution to medical research. A road in Castlebar
Castlebar
Castlebar is the county town of, and at the centre of, County Mayo in Ireland. It is Mayo's largest town by population. The town's population exploded in the late 1990s, increasing by one-third in just six years, though this massive growth has slowed down greatly in recent years...
has been named after him. http://www.westernpeople.com/news/eyojsneyey/
External links
- A biography at Nobel Museum site
- http://www.chemistry.org.il/booklet/13/pdf/weintraub.pdf Weintraub, B. (2003). Ernst Boris Chain (1906-1979) and Penicillin; Chemistry in Israel, Bull. Isr. Chem. Soc., Issue 13, Aug. 2003, p 29-32.