Exquisite Specificity

This book provides a detailed analysis of a major biomedical discovery (1984 Nobel Prize) that also resulted in a major biotechnological breakthrough - the production of unlimited quantities of monoclonal antibodies. It carefully blends a detailed historical reconstruction of the events surrounding the discovery of monoclonal antibodies with a sociological analysis. Based on an extensive reading of the literature in the field, interviews with leading participants, and on-site observation, the book follows events through a twenty-year period during which a laboratory technique was transformed into one of the most successful tools of modern biotechnology.