Monoclonal antibodies

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Who

César Milstein, an Argentine biochemist from a Jewish immigrant family, with Georges Köhler

When

1975

Where

Cambridge, England (MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology)

Monoclonal antibodies are identical, mass-producible antibodies that have transformed diagnostics and become some of medicine's most important drugs, from cancer therapy to autoimmune disease. The method to produce them was developed in 1975 by César Milstein, born to a Jewish immigrant family in Argentina, together with Georges Köhler. They shared the 1984 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and did not patent the technique, allowing it to spread freely.

Part of “The Gifts of the Jews” — verified Jewish contributions to the world, with sources.