| RefNo | EC/1980/17 |
| Previous numbers | Cert XX, 194 |
| Level | Item |
| Title | Jerne, Niels Kaj: certificate of election to the Royal Society |
| Date | 1979 |
| Description | Citation typed |
| Citation | Distinguished especially for theoretical contributions which have greatly influenced immunology. He first proposed in 1955 a natural selection theory of antibody formation based on selection of antibody molecules by antigens, which was the original stimulus of the clonal selection hypotheses of Talmage and Burnet, now recognized as essentially correct. In 1971 he proposed that antibody diversity was in part due to somatic mutation in and selection of clones of lymphocytes expressing genes coding for receptors capable of recognizing self - but not allo-histocompatibility antigens. This was followed by his 'network' hypothesis (1974) which proposed that all antibody molecules can elicit an antibody response against specific combining sites (idiotypes) so that any immune response in turn gives rise to an extending network of regulatory responses. His experimental contributions to immunology include an important method for detecting antibody production by individual living cells which has since been the basis for much of the quantitative work in experimental immunology. As the originator of the Immunology Unit of the World Health Organization and later as initiator and Director of the Basel Institute of Immunology his practical as well as theoretical influence on the development of immunology has been quite outstanding. |
| AccessStatus | Closed |
Fellows associated with this archive
| Code | PersonName | Dates |
| NA2128 | Jerne; Niels Kaj (1911 - 1994) | 1911 - 1994 |