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Person

Ernst Chain

A man with light-colored hair and glasses, dressed in a brown suit and tie, sits against a dark background.

German-Jewish biochemist, born in Berlin in 1906, who left Germany in 1933 after the Nazi seizure of power and made his way to Cambridge and then Oxford. Volatile, theatrical, and a serious pianist, he provided the biochemical insight that allowed Heatley and Florey to extract and stabilise penicillin. His later relationship with Florey soured into a long, public feud over credit.

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