title: From the discovery of monoclonal antibodies to their therapeutic application: an historical reappraisal.
abstract: Vertebrate make billions of different antibodies, each with a binding site that recognizes a specific region of a macromolecule. The hybridoma technique allows monoclonal antibodies, highly specific antibodies produced in the laboratory by a variety of methods. In the last 35 years since the first process for creating monoclonal antibodies was introduced, their application have improved the growing biotechnology industry, but the most important application concerns the therapy of human malignancies.
authors.affiliation: Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Neurosciences and Sensory Organs, University of Bari Medical School, Bari, Italy; National Cancer Institute "Giovanni Paolo II", Bari, Italy. Electronic address: domenico.ribatti@uniba.it.
authors.forename: Domenico
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ribatti
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal / Q000266:history / Q000276:immunology* / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D049673:History, 20th Century; D049674:History, 21st Century; D006801:Humans; D012106:Research / Q000266:history
chemical_list: D000911:Antibodies, Monoclonal
keywords: Cancer; History of medicine; Immunology; Monoclonal antibodies; Therapy