1854-1915

German bacteriologist who was awarded a Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 1908 for his contributions to chemotherapy and immunology. Ehrlich discovered a synthetic drug that acted as a "magic bullet" against syphilis. (Magic bullets were drugs that destroyed pathogens without damaging the host.) Ehrlich's studies of serum-mediated immunity led to his discovery of antibodies, nature's own magic bullets. He developed the "side-chain" theory of immunity to explain the induction of antibodies and the specificity of antibody-antigen interaction.