Milstein, César

born Oct. 8, 1927, Bahía Blanca, Arg.

died March 24, 2002, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire, Eng.

Argentinian-born British immunologist.

In 1975 Milstein and Georges Köhler (1946–95) fused short-lived, highly specific lymphocytes with the cells of a myeloma, a type of tumour that can reproduce indefinitely. The hybrid cells, like lymphocytes, secreted antibody to a single antigen and, like myeloma cells, perpetuated themselves. This enabled production of large quantities of pure antibodies against single antigenic characteristics (monoclonal antibodies). Milstein, Köhler, and Niels K. Jerne (1911–94) shared the Nobel Prize in 1984.

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▪ 2003

      Argentine-born British immunologist (b. Oct. 8, 1927, Bahía Blanca, Arg.—d. March 24, 2002, Cambridge, Eng.), was awarded the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1984 for his work in the development of a technique for producing monoclonal antibodies; Milstein shared the prize with Georges Köhler and Niels K. Jerne. Milstein was educated in Argentina and England. He worked at the National Institute of Microbiology in Buenos Aires from 1957 to 1963 and thereafter conducted research as a member of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge. He specialized in the study of antibodies—a class of proteins that help the body eliminate infectious organisms and toxic materials. In 1975, working with Köhler, Milstein developed a method that allowed researchers to create great quantities of identical, or monoclonal, antibodies. The procedure involved fusing short-lived B cells (a type of specialized white blood cell) that produced specific antibodies with long-lived myeloma cells (cancerous B cells) that did not produce antibodies. The resulting hybrid cells, called hybridomas, combined the longevity of cancer cells with the ability to produce antibodies that scientists desired. The technique revolutionized biomedical research; monoclonal antibodies were ultimately used in treating cancer, in diagnosing viral and bacterial diseases, in blood-cell and tissue typing, and in pregnancy testing. In addition to the Nobel Prize, Milstein received the Royal Medal from the Royal Society of London in 1982 and was made a Companion of Honour in 1995.

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▪ Argentine immunologist

born October 8, 1927, Bahía Blanca, Argentina

died March 24, 2002, Cambridge, England

      Argentine-British immunologist who in 1984, with Georges Köhler (Köhler, Georges J.F.) and Niels K. Jerne (Jerne, Niels K.), received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work in the development of monoclonal antibodies (monoclonal antibody).

      Milstein attended the universities of Buenos Aires and Cambridge (Ph.D., 1960) and was on the staff of the National Institute of Microbiology in Buenos Aires (1957–63). Thereafter he was a member of the Medical Research Council Laboratory of Molecular Biology, Cambridge, England, and held dual Argentine and British citizenship.

 Milstein studied antibodies (antibody)—the proteins produced by mature B lymphocytes (plasma cells) that help the body eliminate infections. In his research he used myeloma cells, which are cancerous forms of plasma cells that multiply indefinitely. In 1975, working with Köhler, who was a postdoctoral fellow at Cambridge, Milstein developed one of the most powerful tools of molecular biology: monoclonal antibody production, a technique that allows researchers to construct cells that produce great quantities of identical (monoclonal) antibodies, all targeted to recognize the same antigen (see figure—>). The procedure involves fusing long-lived myeloma cells that do not produce antibodies with short-lived plasma cells that produce a specific antibody. The resulting hybrid cells, called hybridomas, combine the longevity of the myeloma cell with the ability to produce a specific antibody and so are able to produce potentially unlimited amounts of the desired antibody. Monoclonal antibodies have a wide variety of clinical and research applications; for example, they are used in pregnancy tests, in diagnosing viral and bacterial diseases, and in blood cell and tissue typing.

      Milstein received the Royal Medal from the Royal Society of London (1982), and in 1983 he became head of the Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry Division at the Medical Research Council laboratory. In 1994 Milstein was made a Companion of Honour.

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