Portrayal of nobel prize laureate and former Max Planck Director Georges Köhler

Retrospective of life and work of Georges Köhler – Nobel Prize laureate in 1984 and former director of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology, Freiburg

In the current issue of MaxPlanckResearch (03/2016), the science magazine of the Max Planck Society, a comprehensive portrayal of Georges Köhler’s scientific achievements gives insight in the fascinating story of the first creation of so-called monoclonal antibodies by fusing white blood cells and tumor cells together in the mid-1970s. Since then monoclonal antibodies not only became an extremely useful research tool for immunologists to create large numbers of identical, tailor-made antibodies against any antigen but also play an important role in medical diagnostics and therapy. 

Together with Niels Kaj Jerne and César Milstein the pioneering immunologist Köhler received the Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine in 1984. Since 1984 Köhler was director of the Max Planck Institute of Immunobiology in Freiburg and professor at the University of Freiburg. His untimely death in 1995 was a great loss to the institute and the scientific community. Georges Köhler would have celebrated his 70th birthday this year.

Liaison in a Test Tube by Elke Maier. MaxPlanckResearch 2016/3, p. 74-75.