XPost: soc.culture.argentina   
   From: happy@tierrafeliz.net   
      
   The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1984   
   Niels K. Jerne, Georges J.F. Köhler, César Milstein   
   My father was a Jewish immigrant who settled in Argentina, and was left to   
   his own devices at the age of 15. My mother was a teacher, herself the   
   daughter of a poor immigrant family. For both my mother and my father, no   
   sacrifice was too hard to make sure that their three sons (I was the middle   
   one) would go to university. I wasn't a particularly brilliant student, but   
   on the other hand I was very active in Student Union affairs and in student   
   politics. It was in this way that I met my wife, Celia. After graduation, we   
   married, and took a full year off in a most unusual and romantic honeymoon,   
   hitch-hiking our way through most countries in Europe, including a couple of   
   months working in Israel kibbutzim. As we returned to Argentina, I started   
   seriously to work towards a doctoral degree under the direction of Professor   
   Stoppani, the Professor of Biochemistry at the Medical School. My PhD thesis   
   work was done with no economic support. Both Celia and I worked part-time   
   doing clinical biochemistry, between us earning just enough to keep us   
   going. My thesis was on kinetics studies with the enzyme aldehyde   
   dehydrogenase. When that was finished, I was granted a British Council   
   Fellowship to work under the supervision of Malcolm Dixon. There, in the   
   Department of Biochemistry at the University of Cambridge, I started a   
   project on the mechanism of metal activation of the enzyme   
   phosphoglucomutase. It was through that enzyme that I started to collaborate   
   with Fred Sanger. I have described this collaboration in some detail   
   previously (Lynen Lecture; Miami Winter Symp. Proc., In: "From gene to   
   protein: translation into biotechnology"; Ed. W. Whelan, Academic Press,   
   1982). It was after completing my PhD thesis that I took a short-term   
   appointment with the Medical Research Council in Sanger's group, and then   
   returned to Argentina for a period of two years. During that period I   
   extended my studies of mechanisms of enzyme action to the enzymes   
   phosphoglyceromutase and alkaline phosphatase. It was then that I had my   
   first experience at directing other people's work, including my first   
   research student. The political persecution of liberal intellectuals and   
   scientists manifested itself as a vendetta against the director of the   
   institute where I was working. This forced my resignation and return to   
   Cambridge to rejoin Fred Sanger, who by then had been appointed Head of the   
   Division of Protein Chemistry in the newly-formed Laboratory of Molecular   
   Biology of the Medical Research Council. Following his suggestion, I shifted   
   my interests from enzymology to immunology. The evolution of my research in   
   this area is described in the Lynen Lecture as mentioned above and in the   
   Nobel Lecture.   
      
   Born 8 October 1927, in Bahía Blanca, Argentina. Married in 1953, to Celia   
   (née Prilleltensky). No children.   
      
         1939-1944 Colegio Nacional, Bahía Blanca (Bachiller)   
         1945-1952 Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Buenos Aires   
   (Licenciado en Ciencias Químicas)   
         1950-1956 Part-time clinical analyst at Laboratorios Liebeschutz   
         1952-1957 Research Student at the Instituto de Química Biológica,   
   Facultad de Ciencias Médicas, Universidad de Buenos Aires   
         1957 Doctor en Química (Universidad de Buenos Aires)   
         1957-1963 Staff of Instituto Nacional de Microbiología, Buenos Aires   
   (Leave of absence 1958-1961)   
         1958-1960 British Council Fellowship at the Department of   
   Biochemistry, University of Cambridge   
         1960 Ph.D. degree (University of Cambridge)   
         1960-1961 Scientific staff of Medical Research Council at the   
   Department of Biochemistry, University of Cambridge   
         1961-1963 Head of División de Biología Molecular, Instituto Nacional   
   de Microbiología, Buenos Aires   
         1963- Scientific Staff of Medical Research Council Laboratory of   
   Molecular Biology, Cambridge   
         1983 Head, Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry Division, Cambridge   
      
   Honorary member, Scandinavian Immunological Societies (1970); Member,   
   European Molecular Biology Organization (1974); Fellow of the Royal Society   
   (1975); Honorary member, American Association of Immunologists (1979);   
   Fellow of Darwin College, Cambridge (1980); Honorary Fellow of Fitzwilliam   
   College, Cambridge (1982); Foreign Associate, National Academy of Sciences,   
   USA (1981); Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Physicians (1983); Foreign   
   Honorary Member, American Academy of Art and Sciences (1983); Member of the   
   Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina (1983); Académico   
   Correspondiente Extranjero of the Real Academia de Ciencias Exactas, Fisicas   
   y Naturales, Madrid (1984).   
      
   Prizes and Awards   
      
   Prize Herrero Doucloux of the Asociación Química Argentina (1957); CIBA   
   Medal and Prize (1978); Lewis S. Rosenstiel Award, Brandeis University   
   (1979); Avery-Landsteiner Prize, Society for Immunology (1979); V. D. Mattia   
   Lectureship Award, Roche Institute (1979); Adolph Rosenberg Award,   
   University of Miami (1980); Wolf Prize in Medicine, Wolf Foundation, Israel   
   (1980); Louisa Gross Horwitz Prize, Columbia University (1980); Robert Koch   
   Prize and Medal, Germany (1980); Royal Society Wellcome Foundation Prize   
   (1980); Madonnina Award, Fondazione Carlo Erba, Milano (1981); William Bate   
   Hardy Prize, Cambridge Philosophical Society (1981); Jimenéz Díaz Memorial   
   Award, Fundación Conchita Rabago de Jimenéz Díaz, Spain (1981); General   
   Motors Cancer Research Foundation Sloan Prize, USA (1981); The Gairdner   
   Foundation Annual Award, Canada (1981); Krebs Medal, Federation of European   
   Biochemical Societies (1981); Brown-Hazen Memorial Award, Albany, New York   
   (1982); Lynen Medal, Miami Winter Symposium (1982); Gerónimo Forteza Medal,   
   Valencia, Spain (1982); David Pressman Memorial Award, U.S.A. (1982);   
   Biochemical Analysis Prize 1982, German Society for Clinical Chemistry   
   (1982); Karl Landsteiner Award, American Association of Blood Banks (1982);   
   Royal Medal, Royal Society (1982); XI International Congress of Allergology   
   and Clinical Immunology Award (1982); Rabbi Shai Shacknai Memorial Prize,   
   Hebrew University, Jerusalem (1982); Philip Levine Award, American Society   
   of Clinical Pathologists (1983); Franklin Medal, Franklin Institute, U.S.A.   
   (1983); Mallinkrodt Award for Investigative Research, Clinical Ligand Assay   
   Society, U.S.A. (1983); Carlos J. Finlay Prize for Meritorious Work in   
   Microbiology, UNESCO (1983); Common Wealth Award in Science, Sigma XI   
   Scientific Research Society, U.S.A. (1983); Dale Medal, Society for   
   Endocrinology (1984); Albert Lasker Basic Medical Research Award, Albert and   
   Mary Lasker Foundation (1984); John Scott Award, Board of Directors of City   
   Trusts, Philadelphia, U.S.A. (1984).   
      
      
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