THREE PIONEERS IN IMMUNOLOGY SHARE NOBEL PRIZE
Author: By Dick Soderlund, Associated Press
Date: Tuesday, October 16, 1984
Page: 10
Section: NATIONAL/FOREIGN
Three researchers won the 1984 Nobel Prize in Medicine yesterday for
pioneering studies in immunology that have led to promising new treatments for
diseases ranging from allergies to cancer.
The awarding medical faculty at Stockholm's Karolinska Institute said the
work of the three scientists already is being applied in the fight against
cancer and in organ transplantation.
Niels Kaj Jerne, 73, a Dane born in London, was cited along with his West
German colleague at a Swiss research institute, Georges Koehler, 38, and
Cambridge University researcher Cesar Milstein, 57, an Argentine. The three
reacted with delighted surprise to the announcement.
A Karolinska spokesman said the laureates' work is "one of the great
research achievements in the 1970s, next to developments in the genetics
field," for which researchers have previously received Nobel prizes.
The Karolinska professors cited the three for their work in deciphering
how the body's defenses against disease work and how to manipulate them to
fight disease.
Their discoveries are being used in research on mild illnesses and on
serious diseases such as cancer, severe combined immune deficiency syndrome,
and the mysterious acquired immune deficiency syndrome, known as AIDS.
Described as "the leading theoretician of immunology during the last 30
years," Jerne was honored for three major theories on the development and
control of the immune system. The selectors said his work was the basis for
that of his co-laureates, who discovered the principle for producing
monoclonal antibodies and produced the first ones in 1975.
Monoclonal antibodies recognize targets such as germs, particular blood
cells, and cancer cells, so that they can be identified or destroyed.
Milstein's and Koehler's method of producing monoclonal antibodies
involves fusing an antibody-producing cell - which can recognize an invading
organism - with a tumor cell, which lives and reproduces indefinitely.
Jerne presented the first of his three main pioneering theories into
immunological research in 1955 and the last, his so-called "network theory,"
10 years ago.
The Karolinska professors said the first theory, on antibody formation,
''is a starting point of modern cellular immunology."
The last concludes that every individual has a network of specialized
antibodies even while in the womb.
Milstein, speaking from his home in Cambridge, England, said in a
telephone interview with the Buenos Aires radio station Radio Rivadavia: "I
still haven't recovered" from the news.
"This is a great honor," he said.
Milstein, born in Bahia Blanca, Argentina, has worked in chemistry in
Argentina. He received his doctorate at Cambridge in 1960, and now heads the
university's division of protein and nucleic acid chemistry.
Jerne said by telephone from the Basel Institute of Immunology where he
and Koehler work that he was surprised because "there are so many others who
have done wonderful things."
He told reporters later at a reception that the award was the "crowning"
of his career.
"My knees are still trembling," Koehler said in a telephone interview. He
plans to move back to his native West Germany soon to become a director of the
famed Max Planck Institute for immune biology at Freiburg.
Jerne, who was educated in Denmark and pursued his science career in the
United States, Switzerland and West Germany, now lives in France. He remains
active at the Basel Institute as a professor emeritus.
The three will share the $193,000 prize equally.
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