German-born British biochemist who was awarded a Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1945, together with Alexander
Fleming and Howard
Florey (Fleming for his discovery of the bactericidal effect of penicillin, and Chain and Florey for their isolation of penicillin and its development as an antibiotic drug). Chain also discovered penicillinase, an enzyme that destroys penicillin. Chain was knighted in 1969.
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