Paul Ehrlich
Paul Ehrlich
Paul Ehrlich (1854–1915) was a German physician and scientist who helped found the fields of immunology and chemotherapy. As a medical student he became fascinated by the way certain dyes stain particular cells, and his staining methods made it possible to distinguish the different types of blood cells and to identify bacteria more clearly. Working alongside Emil von Behring, he helped standardize diphtheria antitoxin, and his side-chain theory offered an early explanation of how the body produces antibodies, work recognized with the 1908 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, shared with Élie Metchnikoff. His turning point was the idea of a “magic bullet,” a chemical that would seek out a disease-causing microbe without harming the patient. After testing hundreds of compounds, his laboratory introduced Salvarsan in 1910, the first effective modern treatment for syphilis, opening the era of targeted drug therapy.
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Pioneers of Vaccines and Antibiotics
Edward Jenner introduced vaccination against smallpox in 1796, using material from cowpox. Louis Pasteur developed vaccines against anthrax and rabies and proposed extending the word vaccine to all such protections in Jenner's honor. Paul Ehrlich, seeking a 'magic bullet' against disease, developed Salvarsan (1910), often called the first modern chemotherapeutic drug. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin in 1928, and Jonas Salk's polio vaccine, announced in 1955, was never patented.
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