How and why are they used so extensively in molecular biology?
The production of monoclonal antibodies was pioneered by Georges Kohler and Cesar Milstein in 1975. Let us see how their method, now tried and tested for over 20 years, would be applied in a particular case. In order for us to isolate a B lymphocyte producing a certain antibody, we first have to induce the production of such a B cell in an organism. For example, if we need an antibody for avian SERCA2 protein, we would inject the protein into a mouse. This is typically done in two doses, an initial “priming” dose and a second “booster” dose 10 days later (Campbell MA, pers. comm.). Since the protein is of foreign origin, the mouse immune system recognizes it as such and soon some of the B cells in the mouse would begin production of the antibody to avian SERCA2. A sample of B cells is extracted from the spleen of the mouse and added to a culture of myeloma cells (cancer cells). The intended result is the formation of hybridomas, cells formed by the fusion of a B cell and a myeloma cell
