Paul ehrlich and magic bullet

Concept in biology, precursor to chemotherapy

The magic bullet is a scientific concept developed by the German Nobel laureate Paul Ehrlich in 1907.^[1] While working at the Institute of Experimental Therapy (Institut für experimentelle Therapie), Ehrlich formed an idea that it could be possible to kill specific microbes (such as bacteria), which cause diseases in the body, without harming the body itself.

He named the hypothetical agent as Zauberkugel,^[2] and used the English translation "magic bullet" in The Harben Lectures at London.^[3] The name itself is a reference to an old German myth about a bullet that cannot miss its target. Ehrlich had in mind Carl Maria von Weber's popular 1821 operaDer Freischütz, in which a young hunter is required to hit an impossible target in order to marry his bride.^[4]

Ehrlich envisioned that just like a bullet fired from a gun to hit a specific target, there could be a way