© 2000 by Oxford University Press
Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Vol. 92, No. 18, 1462-1464,
September 20, 2000
© 2000 Oxford University Press
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New Discoveries Still Abundant in Monoclonal Antibody Research
In the quarter century since the appearance of the original Nature paper on monoclonal antibodies, optimism about their therapeutic value has waxed and waned. These key immune system proteins have evolved from laboratory novelties to overhyped "magic bullets" to discards on the garbage heap of failed therapies. Only in the last few years, with U.S. Food and Drug Administration approval of Rituxan and Herceptin, has their image as therapeutic agents begun to recover the old shine. Burnished by a series of scientific innovations, monoclonal antibodies may be poised for a renaissance.
Like many breakthroughs, the discovery of monoclonal antibodies was serendipitous, not intentional. César Milstein, Ph.D., an expatriate Argentine immunologist working at the Medical Research Council laboratories in Cambridge, England, was trying to decipher the mechanism of antibody diversity—how the body quickly generated antibodies to foreign substances, or antigens. He used antibody-secreting mouse myeloma cells because normal B cells do
‘A Huge Future’
A Shortcoming
Slow in Popularity
Wave of Approvals
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