The process of creating monoclonals was discovered in 1975 by
biologists Cesar Milstein, a British- Argentinian, and Georges
Koehler, a German, for which they shared a Nobel Prize in 1984.
Monoclonals have been used in research virtually since that
time. Making use of monoclonals` ability to seek out specific
substances in the body, researchers can now study basic biology
in greater detail. ``One can now look at small areas on large
molecules and essentially map those molecules with
monoclonals,`` said University of Illinois microbiologist
Stephen Kaufman. ``This has really been a revolutionary
change.`` Monoclonals also allow investigators to precisely
reproduce reagents, substances used in chemical reactions to
measure and produce other substances. More recently, monoclonals
have become a standard tool in diagnostics, improving the
accuracy and specificity of tests to detect infections,
pregnancies and other conditions. Nearly 170 monoclonal-based
tests are now in use, and Wall Street analysts predict that