Andre Gratia

André Gratia (8 July 1893 – 6 October 1950) was a Belgian microbiologist who discovered and pioneered the study of bacteriocins. Although he started as a physician, he moved to virology and bacteriology studies. In 1925 he discovered a strain of E. coli that produced a resistance to a phage CA81 and called it strain V which is now known as C7. He also noted that extracts of Penicillium were capable of killing anthrax cultures, about three years before Alexander Fleming extracted penicillin.