Definition of Monoclonal antibody

Monoclonal antibody: An antibody produced by a single clone of cells (specifically, a single clone of hybridoma cells) and therefore a single pure homogeneous type of antibody. Monoclonal antibodies can be made in large amounts in the laboratory and are a cornerstone of immunology. The term "monoclonal" pertains to a single clone of cells, a single cell and the progeny of that cell.

History: In 1975 Cesar Milstein and Georges Kohler, working at the University of Cambridge, devised a laboratory technique for making monoclonal antibodies. They wanted to have long-lived cell lines that would make antibodies of a single kind. Antibody-producing cells could be harvested from the spleen of mice that had been exposed to a known antigenic protein but these cells only grew transiently in the laboratory. They also had mouse myeloma cells, tumor cells that would grow indefinitely in the laboratory and produce immunoglobulin, the substance of antibody, but not make a pure antibody. Milstein and Kohler fused the mouse spleen cells with the mouse myeloma cells in the hope that one would bring to the union the antibody specificity they needed, while the other would make the "hybridoma" cells immortal. Their hope was realized. For their discovery, Milstein and Kohler shared the 1984 Nobel Prize in Medicine.