Introduction

The first publication describing the preparation of a monoclonal antibody by so­ matic cell hybridization appeared in 1975.1 Less than a decade later, in 1984, the au­ thors of that paper (Kohler and Milstein) have shared a Nobel Prize, and monoclonal antibodies are regularly mentioned in the lay press. The layman really does not need to know much about monoclonal antibodies; they are high technology, the product of genetic engineering, used in making magic bullets, and quite definitely “ a good thing.”