Ernst Chain was instrumental in the creation of penicillin, the first antibiotic drug. Although the Scottish bacteriologist Alexander Fleming discovered the penicillium notatum mold in 1928, it was Chain who, together with Howard Florey, isolated the breakthrough substance that has saved countless victims of infections. For their work, Chain, Florey, and Fleming were awarded the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1945.

Chain was born in Berlin to Michael Chain and Margarete Eisner Chain. His father was a Russian immigrant who became a chemical engineer and built a successful chemical plant. The death of Michael Chain in 1919, coupled with the collapse of the post-World War I German economy, depleted the family's income so much that Margarete Chain had to open up her home as a guesthouse.

One of Chain's primary interests during his youth was music, and for a while it seemed that he would embark on a career...