Köhler, Georges Jean Franz

Köhler, Georges Jean Franz

(kō`lər, Ger. kö`lər), 1946–95, German immunologist, Ph.D. Univ. of Freiburg, 1974. He worked (1974–76) with César MilsteinMilstein, César,
1927–2002, Anglo-Argentine immunologist, Ph.D. Cambridge, 1960. He worked (1961–63) at the National Institute of Microbiology, Buenos Aires, but following a military coup he resigned and returned to Cambridge, where he joined the staff of the
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 at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. There they developed a practical technique for mass-producing monoclonal antibodiesmonoclonal antibody,
an antibody that is mass produced in the laboratory from a single clone and that recognizes only one antigen. Monoclonal antibodies are typically made by fusing a normally short-lived, antibody-producing B cell (see immunity) to a fast-growing cell, such as
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 by fusing antibody-producing cells with fast-growing cells, such as cancer cells. Their technique for antibody production has since been universally adopted, and the antibodies are used in diagnostics and in fighting leukemia. In 1984 he became a director of the Max Planck Institute of Immune Biology in Freiburg and, with Milstein and Niels K. JerneJerne, Niels Kai
, 1911–94, British-Danish immunologist, b. London. He worked at the Danish State Serum Institute (1945–55) and was chief medical officer to the World Health Organization (1956–62).
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, shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.