Gerald Edelman was born in 1929 in New York. In his youth, he considered becoming a professional violinist, but eventually turned to a career in medicine. He received his Medical degree at Pennsylvania University and specialized in the study of the body immunization system. In 1960, at the Rockefeller Institute, he received his Ph.D. for his research on the structure of antibodies.

In 1927, Gerald Edelman and his British colleague, Rodney Porter, were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine “for their discoveries concerning the chemical structure of antibodies”.

The antibody is a protein, produced by the body in reaction to an antigen, a harmful substance that attacks the body. The function of the antibody, working with various components of the immune system, is to neutralize the effect of the attacking antigen.

Edelman and his team initially succeeded in determining the basic structure of the antibody. In 1969, they deciphered the biochemical structure of the antibody molecule and discovered how the antibody is attached to the antigen.

Edelman’s pioneering work opened up a whole range of study in the field of immunology and led to new insight into genetic and cancer research.