It was at Frankfurt/Mainin 1899 that Paul Ehrlich first expounded his
famous "site-chain theory" -which described the basic immunological
principal of antibody-antigen interactio- on the occasion of the opening
of the Institute for Experimental Therapeutics (which was later named
after him). Nearly 100 years have passed since, and in retrospect it can
be said that the "Ehrlich Era" (first steps in immunology "Magic Bullet"
concept) and the "Behring Era" (detection of antibodies and serum
therapy) formed the essential basis in the development of immunology.
Niels K. Jerne, the former director of the Paul Ehrlich Institute in
Frankfurt/Main received, together with Georges Kohler and Cesar
Milstein, the Nobel Prize in Medicine 1984. These late successors of
Ehrlich and Behring first described the hybridoma technology (in 1975)
which enabled one of the most important and revolutionary technological
innovations in the field of immunology -the production of monoclonal
antibodies. It happens that, the time of the publication of this book,
just a decade has passed since the first use of radiolabelled monoclonal
antibodies in man (by the Lausanne Group). Over these 10 years a
tremendous progress has taken place in the field of immunoscintigraphy:
A large panel of highly specific monoclonal antibodies against
tumour-associated antigens as well as normal cell compounds have been
developed. Enormous progress has been made in the field of
radiolabelling -from iodine-131 to technetium-99mor even
positron-emittingradionuclides, e. g. iodine-124.