The Lock and Key of Medicine: Monoclonal Antibodies and the Transformation of Healthcare by Lara V. Marks (review)

Specificity is the essence of biomedicine. Much modern biomedical research is concerned with investigating the mechanisms of life, with the declared goal of developing specific repairs for any defects in such mechanisms, or finding substances that kill malicious intruders identified as causes of hum...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Technology and culture 2017-10, Vol.58 (4), p.1105-1106
Main Author: Timmermann, Carsten
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Antibodies
Antigens
Biology
Biomedicine
Cancer
Crohn's disease
Disease
Drugs
Ehrlich, Paul
Health care
Humans
Immunoglobulins
Infectious diseases
Jerne, Niels Kai (1911-94)
Laboratories
Life goals
Medical diagnosis
Medical research
Medicine
Metaphor
Molecular biology
Monoclonal antibodies
Nobel prizes
Pharmaceutical industry
Profits
Researchers
Rheumatoid arthritis
Technological change
Technology
Transformation
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Summary:Specificity is the essence of biomedicine. Much modern biomedical research is concerned with investigating the mechanisms of life, with the declared goal of developing specific repairs for any defects in such mechanisms, or finding substances that kill malicious intruders identified as causes of human disease. More than a hundred years ago the German bacteriologist Paul Ehrlich used the metaphor of the magic bullet to characterize his vision of such substances: they would miraculously find their target without causing collateral damage. By the 1980s many believed that the new monoclonal antibody (Mab) technology finally provided humankind with a means of creating such magic bullets. Mabs were expected to revolutionize both the diagnosis and the treatment of many diseases. And indeed, as Lara Marks shows in The Lock and Key of Medicine, by 2012 ten drugs based on monoclonal antibodies had achieved blockbuster status, generating profits of $1 billion or more each. Mabs have found uses in the treatment of cancer as well as conditions such as rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn's disease. Essential components of pregnancy tests as well as diagnostic kits for infectious diseases, they have also transformed diagnostics. Marks's book tells the story of Mab technology from its humble beginnings in César Milstein's lab at the UK Medical Research Council's Laboratory for Molecular Biology in Cambridge to their present day.
ISSN:0040-165X
1097-3729
1097-3729
DOI:10.1353/tech.2017.0133