1984

Biographical

Niels K. Jerne, born 23rd December 1911, London My parents, Hans Jessen Jerne and Else Marie Lindberg, and their ancestors (back to the seventeenth century and earlier) all lived on the island Fanø and in a small adjacent area of western Jutland in Denmark. My family moved to London in 1910, and then to Holland…

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Biographical

My father was a Jewish immigrant who settled in Argentina, and was left to his own devices at the age of 15. My mother was a teacher, herself the daughter of a poor immigrant family. For both my mother and my father, no sacrifice was too hard to make sure that their three sons (I…

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Award ceremony speech

  Presentation Speech by Professor Hans Wigzell of the Translation from the Swedish text Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, It is typical for the human mind that little thought goes to the functions of our body when we are healthy, yet acute interest frequently develops in times of disease. The immune system…

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Speed read

Creating the proteins that perform the host of tasks necessary to support life is not unlike creating a chain, link by link. In this case, the links, or amino acids, are attached sequentially to the growing chain, or peptide. Once the peptide is made, the chain folds up, either on its own or with others,…

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Press release

17 October 1984 has decided to award the 1984 Nobel Prize in chemistry to Professor R. Bruce Merrifield, Rockefeller University, New York, USA, for his development of methodology for chemical synthesis on a solid matrix. Summary R. Bruce Merrifield, Professor at Rockefeller University, has been awarded the Nobel Prize in chemistry for 1984 for his…

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Award ceremony speech

Presentation Speech by Professor Bengt Lindberg of the Translation from the Swedish text Your Majesties, Your Royal Highnesses, Ladies and Gentlemen, The chemical reactions which take place in living organisms are not spontaneous, but require the involvement of catalysts. These catalysts are called proteins and are composed of chains of amino acids called peptides. A…

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