Köhler, Georges Jean Franz

Köhler, Georges Jean Franz (kō`lər, Ger. kö`lər), 1946–95, German immunologist, Ph.D. Univ. of Freiburg, 1974. He worked (1974–76) with César Milstein at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, England. There they developed a practical technique for mass-producing monoclonal antibodies by fusing antibody-producing cells with fast-growing cells, such as cancer cells. Their technique for antibody production has since been universally adopted, and the antibodies are used in diagnostics and in fighting leukemia. In 1984 he became a director of the Max Planck Institute of Immune Biology in Freiburg and, with Milstein and Niels K. Jerne, shared the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.